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^CLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES 
IN THE CLASSIFIED CIVIL SERVICE 


PRELIMINARY HEARINGS 



BEFORE THE 

w 


)MMITTEE ON REFORM IN THE CIVIL SERVICE OF 
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 


SIXTY-SECOND CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION 

ON 

H. R. 729, 750, 1298, 9242, and 11661 


MAY 27 and JUNE 1, 1911 


COMMITTEE ON REFORM IN THE CIVIL SERVICE 


Hannibal L. Godwin, of North Carolina, Chairman . 
David E. Finley, of South Carolina. 

ArsEne P. Pujo, of Louisiana. 

Charles D. Carter, of Oklahoma. 

Martin Dies, of Texas. 

John W. Boehne, of Indiana. 


H. Garland Dupre, of Louisiana. 
Charles A. Talcott, of New York. 
Frederick H. Gillett, of Massachusetts, 

I. D. Young, of Kansas. 

William Kent, of California. 

Solomon F. Prouty, of Iowa. 


L. B. Hale, Clerk. 



WASHINGTON 

1911 














[H. Res. 155, Sixty-second Congress, first session.] 


Resolved , That the Committee on Reform in the Civil Service be authorized to have 
such printing and binding done as shall be necessary in the transaction of its business 
during the Sixty-second Congress. 

[Passed May 8, 1911.] 

2 


n OF W- 

-’if? 4 '912 







House of Representatives, 

Committee on Reform in the Civil Service, 

Saturday , May 27, 1911. 

The committee met at 10 o’clock a. m., Hon. Hannibal L. Godwin 
(chairman), presiding. 

STATEMENT OF DR. LLEWELLYN JORDAN, OF WASHINGTON, 

D. C., REPRESENTING THE UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE 

RETIREMENT ASSOCIATION. 

Mr. Jordan. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I 
am here this morning to make a brief statement with reference to a 
matter which has been pending before this committee. For many 
years the committee has been considering the question of how to 
deal with the increasing problem of superannuation, which is becom¬ 
ing quite serious throughout the entire classified civil service. It is 
safely within the limits of truth to say, that since this question has 
been under consideration by this committee, more than 50 different 
kinds of bills have been introduced. A few years ago the Keep Com¬ 
mittee, which was a committee appointed by President Roosevelt, 
undertook the study of this question in the executive departments 
and in the independent Government establishments in the city of 
Washington, and, as a result of their extended study, covering more 
than a year, they made a definite recommendation which was trans¬ 
mitted by the then President to Congress, and which reached this 
committee. 

As one of the results of that recommendation, Mr. Gillett, the then 
chairman of the committee, formulated a bill which bore his name, 
and which was subsequently reported from the committee and placed 
upon the Union Calendar of the House. The fate of that bill, like 
some other legislation which was subjected to the unfortunate situ¬ 
ation brought about by Calendar Wednesday, was not taken up by 
Congress at the last session for consideration. Mr. Gillett has intro¬ 
duced the same bill, which is now pending before your committee, 
with some slight modifications. The modifications relate to the 
question of embracing within the purview of that bill the entire 
classified civil service, whereas the former bill restricted its operation 
to the District of Columbia. There is also pending before this com¬ 
mittee the Austin bill. The Austin bill is constructed on essentially 
the same principles as the Gillett bill, although it differs from it, 
in two or three important particulars. The Austin bill carries 
a general increase of salaries of 15 per cent and is optional so far 
as employees now in the service are concerned. There is also pend¬ 
ing before this committee a bill introduced by Mr. Hamill, of New 
Jersey, which is a straight civil-pension bill. The purpose of that 
bill is to retire the superannuated employees in the classified civil 
service wholly at the expense of the United States Government. 

3 


4 RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 

The United States Government, since it began, through the activi¬ 
ties of the Keep committee, to study the question of superannuation 
in'the classified civil service, has expended upward of $15,000 in the 
collection and compilation of reliable statistics. These statistics are 
in a great measure available now. Now, we come before you, repre¬ 
senting upward of 60,000 employees in this country, who are affiliated 
with the United States Civil Service Retirement Association, and ask 
you to give us an opportunity of being heard in advocacy of some 
proper, humane, and satisfactory way of dealing with these superan¬ 
nuates in the classified civil service. The executive committee of our 
retirement association, at its last regular monthly meeting, adopted a 
resolution, urging this committee to take up, at such time as they 
might find convenient, the consideration of these several bills. I 
transmitted a copy of that resolution to each member of this com¬ 
mittee, and in response I received at least half a dozen acknowledg¬ 
ments from different members of the committee. The bill which our 
association is advocating is the Austin bill. The employees whom 
I represent, through the medium of the retirement association— 
and I am doing that by virtue of an executive exemption from the 
order which you have been considering in connection with the Lloyd 
bill—are-willing to bear their proportionate share of the expense of 
launching this scheme of retirement if their salaries can be adjusted 
so as to meet the heavy deductions which would fall upon the poorer 
paid employees of the classified civil service, and the postal employees 
in particular. 

Now, gentlemen, you have accorded me an opportunity of making 
this brief statement, and I want to close it by urging you, upon the 
conclusion of these hearings, if compatible with the public interest and 
with your desires, to investigate, as you have stated you would, the 
civil service. I want to close by urging this committee to give serious 
consideration to taking up this question. I believe that the time is 
now opportune, with the opportunity which you will have to consider 
these several bills, to formulate some kind of measure that will 
receive the support of this committee and which will receive the sup¬ 
port of the House and Senate and which will receive the support of 
the taxpayers of this country. If the merit principle is to be main¬ 
tained, the time has come, in the judgment of those who have studied 
this question closely, when something must be done to relieve the 
service of these superannuated people who are now clogging it, and 
to relieve that situation in some just and humane way. We have 
never yet had, and I hope we never will have, any Cabinet officer or 
bureau chief who would be willing to throw these people out, after 
years of faithful service, upon the cold charity of the world. Now, 
this is a serious problem wnich is costing the United States Govern¬ 
ment upward of $2,500,000 annually. It has been repeatedly called 
to the attention of Congress by the President, by members of his 
Cabinet, and by bureau chiefs. 

Mr. Stewart, who is appearing before the committee here, has 
written learnedly upon the subject with reference to his own branch 
of the postal service. I say, this is no new question, but it is a live 
question, and one to which I hope the committee will give serious 
attention. 

The Chairman. I think the committee will be glad to hear from 
you on this subject later on, but we can not interrupt the hearings 
that we are carrying on now on this particular bill. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 5 

Dr. Jordan. It was not my intention to offer that suggestion; it 
was my intention to apply for a hearing at the conclusion of these 
hearings. 

The Chairman. I suppose it will be some time before we can con¬ 
clude these hearings, in view of the requests for hearings on this bill, 
but when we do conclude I am satisfied that it will be the pleasure of 
the committee to hear from you. 

Dr. Jordan. Thank you. 

Mr. Young. Do you represent an organization of employees in the 
civil service ? 

Dr. Jordan. Yes, sir; the United States Civil Service Retirement 
Association is an organized body of classified civil-service employees, 
which has had an existence of upward of 12 years. 

Mr. Young. Representing all the branches of the service? 

Dr. Jordan. Yes, sir; all branches of the service subject to the rules 
and regulations of the civil service. Permit me to say one word in 
that connection—the President of the United States, in connection 
with his order, has given this retirement association permission to 
work with this committee and to assist it in its labors in formulating 
any legislative measure. So we appear here by virtue of that 
exemption. 



RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES IN THE 
CLASSIFIED CIVIL SERVICE. 


Committee on Reform in the Civil Service, 

Washington, D. C., Thursday, June 1,1911. 

The committee met at 10 o’clock a. m. 

The Chairman. The committee will be in order. This meeting 
was called for the purpose of hearing miscellaneous statements on the 
retirement bills. Gentlemen present who desire to address the com¬ 
mittee will be allowed to do so now. 

Dr. Jordan. We have with us this morning Dr. Hemy Frank, of 
the city of New York, who has given a great deal of consideration, as 
a public-spirited citizen and clergyman, to this question. I am 
anxious to be heard a little later, but with your permission I will give 
way now to Dr. Frank. 

Mr. Buck. As secretary of the National Civil Service Improvement 
Association of the business men of the United States, originally 
formed June 5, 1910, I journeyed to New York last Sunday night 
and met Mr. Elliott Goodwin, the secretary of the National Civil 
Service Reform League of the country by suggestion of John Joy 
Edson and other members of the National Civil Service Reform 
League of Washington, and asked Mr. Goodwin to furnish me with 
some speakers for our meeting at Masonic Temple. Mr. Goodwin 
said he did not approve of the action of this Business Men’s Associa¬ 
tion in 1910; that the action of going to Congress to have 248 super¬ 
annuated people restored to the service was against his personal views. 
He said in his office in New York City Monday morning that he was 
in favor of dismissing the superannuated people, and that a great 
many of the committee of the National Civil Service Reform League 
were of the same mind; that Mr. John Joy Edson and others who had 
these 248 restored to the rolls of the Treasury Department did it 
against his judgment; that they should have been dismissed then, as 
that would have been the beginning of the end of superannuation as 
continued in the executive civil service throughout the countrv. 

I left Mr. Goodwin in that unamiable state of mind and called on 
Mr. Horace E. Deming, whom I found was in Connecticut. Mr. Dem- 
ing’s wife said Mr. Deming was not in sympathy with Mr. Goodwin, 
in no sense, that the superanuated people should be absolutely dis¬ 
missed from the service without any attention being given to their 
past service; and that he undoubtedly would attend the meeting and 
speak in Masonic Temple on May 31. 

I then went to Mr. Frank’s residence on Madison avenue, New 
York City, and found him. Mr. Frank is here at my solicitation, on 
behalf of the association, and he will be the spokesman, together with 
Col. John McElroy, of Virginia, of the bar association, and we would 
especially plead that these gentlemen be heard at this time. 

The Chairman. How much time will be required? 

Mr. Frank. Not very long. 

Mr. Buck. About 15 minutes. 



8 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


STATEMENT OF DR. HENRY FRANK, OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Dr. Frank. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I thank 
you in behalf of the organization which has asked me to present this 
proposition to you, for the privilege of a few moments in which to 
make an explanation of what I understand their desires to be. 

Now, you must first kindly appreciate the fact that I am not a 
politician, neither practical nor impractical; I am simply a citizen, 
and as such naturally interested in all movements that look to the 
betterment of the governmental transactions of the nation. As such 
I come merely to make what few remarks I shall, and I consider it 
necessary that I make this preliminary statement because I am quite 
well aware that there is a personal interest involved in this proposi¬ 
tion; that an effort seeking the betterment of the civil service naturally 
involves the personal interest of those engaged in Federal employ¬ 
ment, and I take it that the world, the citizenship at large, may 
probably so look upon it as merely a mercenary affair—that is, some¬ 
thing that the individuals are interested in for their own betterment. 

To get it clearly before our minds, we might say that we have three 
distinct propositions to consider. 

The first is distinctively a monetary or financial proposition; or, let 
us say, the question of the sustenance of life, an economic proposition, 
relating to the individual. 

The second, as I understand it, is a governmental proposition; 
that is, relating to the fundamental principles of the transaction of 
Government affairs; the matter of efficiency; the matter of expend¬ 
iture; the matter of avoidance of unnecessary employees who are 
not, for one reason or another, properly capacitated to execute the 
duties which are incumbent upon them for the payment they receive 
for such services. 

The third proposition, and which to me I will confess, gentlemen, 
is the greatest of all—that is, it makes the most intense and con¬ 
vincing appeal to me—is what I may call the humanitarian propo¬ 
sition. That is, the consideration of this problem from the point of 
view of the large necessities of human beings and of the race in general. 

Now, to address my words, in the first place, to the matter of the 
financial support of our Federal employees. I do not claim to be here 
with any definite information regarding the matter of salaries, and I 
will defer such statement to those better informed. I am simply 
referring to the matter in a general way as it is understood by such of 
the citizenship as have at least partially informed themselves con¬ 
cerning the situation. I am informed that the general salary which 
prevails among the several thousand Federal employees is not of such 
a character as to give them the opportunity in life which they should 
have as citizens of this country to carry forward the practical work¬ 
ings of their lives, to procure necessary comforts, to raise their fami¬ 
lies, to educate their children—in other words, to environ themselves 
with such a situation as we would expect the employees of this coun¬ 
try to be privileged with. 

We hope at least that the men, and the women, too, that this great 
Government employs will be so remunerated that their humanity, 
their self-respect, their manhood and womanhood, will not be infringed 
upon by the necessities which economic restrictions compel because 
of the fact that they are not properly provided for out of the funds of 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 9 

this great Government to make themselves as comfortable as they 
should be in accord with their social positions. Further than that, I 
will not remark upon that situation, as I think gentlemen are present 
who can give more detailed information. 

The second proposition, however, is one to which I can address, 
perhaps, a few more particular and detailed words. We, the citizens 
of this country—and you will understand that in my humble way 
and in behalf of the organization I represent I speak for the general 
citizenship of the country—the vast mass of human beings consti¬ 
tuting the 90,000,000 inhabitants of this Nation, are simply lookers- 
on at the transactions of this mighty Government. We on the out¬ 
skirts of course know very little of the details; we know very little 
of the minutiae of the Government business that the gentlemen who 
are here in the employ of the Government are privileged to under¬ 
stand. But the one fact that we feel it is incumbent upon us to 
emphasize is this, that the business of the Government should be 
transacted upon a business basis, it should be transacted upon an 
economic basis, upon a scientific basis, upon a standardized basis. 
In other words, the object of this Government in transacting its 
affairs should not be to recklessly dispose of its money, on the one 
hand, nor in niggardly fashion to withhold its money, on the other 
hand, in connection with such demands as are made upon it for the 
performance of the duties to which they require the citizens of the 
country to devote themselves. Therefore the great question of 
efficiency enters in. That is the quid pro quo; how much are we, as 
the citizens of this country, getting from the employees that our 
Federal Government utilizes in return for the salaries which they 
procure for the work they are doing ? 

Now, I do not believe that any general complaint has arisen 
throughout the country in this regard. As a matter of fact, I think 
there is a vast amount of ignorance and no less indifference among 
the multitudinous citizens of the Nation in regard to this matter, 
because they are almost universally uninformed about it. 

But when we study the question of efficiency we find it necessarily 
involves the availability of the merit system, and the problem as to 
the extent of time men may be engaged in Government service before 
evidencing such failure of faculties as detracts from the efficiency of 
their labors. 

In so much as the merit system is operated by the United States, it 
should be a merit system from A to Z; it should be a merit system all 
along the line to make it both just and efficient. If, for instance, the 
younger men who enter into the service must pass rigorous examina¬ 
tions in order to procure their Federal appointments, and then, after 
they enter into the service discover that there is a large number, 
several thousand employees as I am informed, who because of their 
long service and their exhausted faculties are no longer able to per¬ 
form their duties, but enjoy their sinecures to the utter disadvantage 
and discouragement of the younger employees—who because of the 
privilege they enjoy of receiving their salaries wdthout performing a 
tithe of the work which would constitute an equivalent for their pay, 
unsettle the entire system which is supposed to be based wholly upon 
merit. 

Such a state of affairs necessarily throws a vast amount of addi¬ 
tional work on some of the force and makes meritorious promotions 


10 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


quite infrequent, or at least not as certain and methodical as they 
should be to maintain the discipline and enthusiasm of the employees. 

Now, then, efficiency in Government employment, based upon the 
proposition of merit, can not exist if as you approach the end of the 
system, so to speak, the whole system falls down. If, in other words, 
you find out the merit system does not prevail in the latter end of 
the service, but is insisted upon only in the early stages, it discourages 
the force all the way along, because it is not rigorously and efficiently 
maintained to the very end. 

We know that it discourages promotions and demeans the manhood 
to such an extent that some of our great representatives—I believe 
it was President Roosevelt himself, who only a few months ago made 
the statement to the young men of the country that they should not 
regard it as one of the ambitions of their lives to enter into the 
Federal employment through the method of examinations and upon 
the basis of merit and promise of promotion, because it was too dis¬ 
couraging. If a young man entered into the employment of his 
country there was scarcely any hope of promotion for him. He 
would get up to a certain stage, and there he stays; he has no oppor¬ 
tunity to utilize whatever inventive genius he may have or any per¬ 
sonal initiative ho may possess. He is a machine, and it ends there. 
So that it was President Roosevelt, I believe, who advised the young 
men of the country if they wished to enter into political activities 
they should do so indirectly, by first entering one of the professions, 
such as law, or even engage in the mercantile line, and first procure a 
good position. Then, when he had reached a point where he had 
achieved the respect and honor of his constituents, he might look for 
political preferment. Then he can enter politics with honor and 
dignity and be highly respected and not be a mere service machine in 
the employment of the United States. 

Now, I protest as a citizen that that is not the ideal upon which 
service to this Nation should be solicited. I am quite convinced such 
an ideal is demeaning to the manhood of the employees. But unfor¬ 
tunately it seems to be true. 

To give you a little personal experience: When I was a lad I had 
a cousin in the employ of the Federal service. As I was tottering out 
of high school, having passed my examinations and received my 
diploma, I said to my cousin, “I believe I will go into the Federal 
service.” He patted me on the back: “My boy, don’t ever do a 
thing like that; it will be death to you. I have been in the service 
10 or 15 years myself. Look at me. I can not get any further on 
than where I am now.” And he was an efficient, capable man. I 
remember that, although I had already written for my examination 
papers, I became utterly discouraged, and said, “I believe you are 
right.” You will pardon me if I say that since that day*Y have 
thanked the good graces of Providence that through the instru¬ 
mentality of my cousin I was prevented from entering the Govern¬ 
ment service. 

There are too many discouragements in the service, discourage¬ 
ments that are not legitimate, that are hot necessary, that are caused 
by removable dead-weight, by insufficient salaries which I believe 
the economic demands of the Nation do not justify. 

Mr. Talcott. You mean when a man gets to a certain point he is 
limited ? 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 11 

Mr. Frank. Yes. He is held downlike a machine. He is like a man 
in the factory nowadays who touches a button that moves a certain 
machine, and that is as far as he ever gets; he can never become any¬ 
thing more than that because economic necessities in the division of 
labor limit him to that restricted work, and it is necessary in the 
present methods of manufacture. You take him out and put him in 
an office, and what can he do ? He can do nothing but what he has 
been so long doing. He is not good for anything else. 

That reminds me of a statement Mr. Buck told me a gentleman who 
holds high public office made to him regarding the problem of effi¬ 
ciency. That gentleman said in his opinion it was an absolute busi¬ 
ness requirement that when a man had reached the end, or was 
approaching the end, of his physical or mental endurance he should be 
shoved aside, be cast coldly away and let get on as best he could. 

I can not believe for a single moment that this committee of the 
United States Congress will for a moment listen to such an inhuman 
and barbarous proposition as that. I would not treat my horse that 
way; I would not treat my dog that way. What a shame, gentlemen, 
to think that any man living in this humanitarian age, representing 
a body of citizens who stand for progress, for moral development 
and humanity, should suggest that after the Government has been 
privileged to employ certain of its citizens for a period of years, and, 
if you please, has squeezed out all their vitality, squeezed all of the 
iuice out of their blood, so to speak, all the electricity out of their 
brain, should then say, “You are worth nothing more to us; go find 
what pasture you can; do whatever you can find to do.” 

I do not believe it is necessary to dwell upon such an unhappy 
suggestion before this committee. If I did, I assure you I would not 
like to be limited to 15 minutes, for I should feel like breaking the 
rules and talk for an hour. However, I do not believe you would 
listen for a moment to such an inhuman proposition as that. 

In regard to efficiency, I would say this: In a conference which I 
held with Mr. Doyle, head of the Civil Service Commission, it oc¬ 
curred to us both that the present situation in the service was most 
unfortunate in that, because of the infrequency and discouragement 
of promotions, the brightest and brainiest talent of the Nation was 
not entering its employ, but going to the very corporations that have 
really become the Nation’s enemies. 

, The money powers, the business, commercial, and corporate 
interests of this Nation have grown to such gigantic proportions that 
there is not a brain so brilliant, though I might say it were the brain 
I of Zeus himself, the old god of the Romans, but that these companies 
i could employ it in their service. They have the money, they have the 
power, they have, I might say, the logical coercion with which to 
drive into their employment any particular man under heaven they 
[ may need. What is the consequence ? The consequence is they are 
absorbing the most brilliant, the brightest, the greatest minds this 
Nation has engendered in the prosecution of their business enter¬ 
prises. On the face of it there can be no objection to their engaging 
whatever talent they may discover.* But there is a very serious 
danger connected with this fact. The Supreme Court decisions 
handed down the other day against two of the greatest corporations 
of this Nation indirectly gives us the hint. It is now no longer 
anarchistic to say that many of the great corporations in this Nation 



12 RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 

are illegal institutions; that they are undermining the fundamental 
principles upon which our Government was once established. The 
Supreme Court decisions plainly indicate that some of these large 
corporations are conducting not only an illegal but a criminal busi¬ 
ness, a business which if unchecked will utterly overthrow the existing 
Government. 

Gentlemen, that simply means the United States Government has 
to protect itself against these great institutions. How are you 
going to do it? If indifferent talent is forced by necessity upon 
the Government for the Government to employ in defending itself 
against the superlatively brilliant minds that these criminal organi¬ 
zations procure- 

Mr. Dies (interposing). You do not contend the department 
clerks are going to represent the Government against the corporations ? 

Dr. Frank. But you have younger men coming into the service; 
for instance, you get them in the West, where they must protect 
the interests of the people against the stealthy and cunning methods 
of these encroaching corporations. 

Mr. Dies. Here is the Attorney General of the United States, a 
very brilliant lawyer, who has been very successful for the Govern¬ 
ment. He was glad to leave one of the great corporations to become 
an honored representative of the Government. Then, take a recent 
Senator from Iowa, who was very glad to leave the Government for 
a small salary. 

Dr. Frank. That is all right, when you have reached the height 
that Mr. Wickersham has. He has reached the height of his pro¬ 
fession and has already acquired all the financial remuneration he 
could from that source, or probably desires from that source. 

Mr. Dies. You take the Steel Corporation. They may want a man 
of great genius like Mr. Schwab to be the head of it, but they do not 
require 200,000 or 300,000 geniuses to work in the furnaces. Do you 
contend the Government needs 400,000 geniuses ? 

Dr. Frank. I do not say we must change the standard of efficiency 
that we require for the leading officials or for the heads of the depart¬ 
ments or even the secondary heads of departments. I do not say 
they must be all upon the same standard. What I am discussing is 
the assertion that has recently been made by certain of the most rep¬ 
resentative and distinguished citizens of this country, namely, that 
the younger men who contemplate entering into the governmental 
service who have ability, who have intellect, would better not enter, 
because they can employ themselves to their own advantage far better 
in different professions and avocations in life. 

What I am getting at is, we have no business as a Government to 
put the standard upon which we employ the talent of this Nation upon 
such a basis as that; I do not thinK we are justified in it. 

Mr. Dies. As a matter of fact, don’t you know it is a matter of fact 
that the Government pays more money for similar service than pri¬ 
vate enterprises right here in Washington and in other cities of the 
United States ? 

Dr. Frank. It undoubtedly does for a certain proportion. 

Mr. Dies. Take the great body of 411,000 Government employees, 
is it not a fact that the Government pays them 25 per cent more 
than private enterprises for the same kind of work ? 

Dr. Frank. Let us look at that proposition for just a moment. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


13 


The Chairman. Do you admit that ? 

Dr. Frank. I hardly do, although I confess I am not going to 
make a denial of it in so much as I have not at hand the data with 
which to make a denial. But I am strongly inclined to think that is 
not so. I have been told, for instance, by the employees in the Fed¬ 
eral service in New York City that many of them are working at 
$1,200 a year and trying to live with their families upon it. I think 
Mr. Buck told me there were in this city some 4,000 who were trying 
to raise their families upon $1,200 a year. Is not that so, Mr. Buck? 

Mr. Buck. Secretary Doyle is authority for the statement there 
are 4,600 men, with wives and families of 4 children, as a minimum, 
that are getting less than $1,000 a year in the executive civil service 
in Washington. 

Mr. Dies. I do not doubt it, but I say if you will look among the 
stores and offices you will find several more thousand who are getting 
just about half of that. 

Dr. Frank. If that were so, I say to the Government that you have 
no business to sacrifice the manhood and the womanhood of those 
who are employed by the United States Government upon that low, 
financial basis, which the grasping, aggrandizing, commercial interests 
of this country demand. That is the way I would answer that. Do 
you mean to tell me you think this great Government of the United 
States should employ the scandalous methods that are well known to 
be employed by men who own the great department stores of this 
country? Why, gentlemen, I do not want, for a moment, to dwell 
upon that. You know very well the situation in such institutions, 
where young women who come there asking for employment are given 
employment for a few dollars a week, and when they turn to the man¬ 
ager and say, “Why, sir, I can not live upon that,” the answer is, 
“Have you no friend?” Do you want that circumstance to enter 
into the transaction of the business of this country ? 

Mr. Dies. Does that condition prevail in Washington? 

Dr. Frank. I am not talking about Washington. So far as 
Washington is concerned, you have the statement, made by Mr. Buck, 
that 4,000 men in this city are employed, trying to raise their fam¬ 
ilies of 4 or more children, upon $1,000 a year. You know that can 
not be done respectfully. Your standard of sustenance here in 
Washington is not much lower than it is in New York. You can 
not make me believe that those gentlemen can raise such a family 
as that in the manner that, as citizens of this country, you would 
want to see every citizen raise his family. I can not believe it. 

Mr. Finley. Can the statement you have just made in regard to 
women employees be sustained ? 

Dr. Frank." What is that ? 

Mr. Finley. The statement you made that, after offering people 
so much for their services, and the reply was made they could not 
live on that, they were met by the statement, “Have you a friend ?” 
Can you substantiate that ? 

Dr. Frank. Yes, sir; I can. In 1884 the Massachusetts bureau 
of statistics of labor made a report concerning a searching analysis 
of the source of prostitutes in Boston, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Chicago, 
Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Louisville, Newark, New Orleans, 
New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, St. Louis, and San Francisco, 
which I think reveals some faGts that indicate the statement 1 


14 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


have made is not exaggerated. In a vast number of employments 
for women and young girls the remuneration is so low that they must 
either starve or sell themselves to vice. Ihe number of prostitutes 
examined was 3,866 and their original occupations numbered 23. 
Actresses, ballet girls, circus performers, singers, etc., supplied 
only 52, while workers in shoe and textile factories supplied 137, 
while employees of dressmakers, seamstresses, cloak models, and 
workers in shirt factories, button-hole makers, etc., supplied 505, 
and saleswomen in stores supplied 126, making together 631. Out 
of the entire 3,866 prostitutes, 1,236 came directly from their homes, 
without first entering any occupation. That is, then, the poorly 
paid occupations, because of the depressed condition to which the 
women workers are doomed, supply 2,650, or over 67 per cent. 
This would lead us to see much force in the statement of W. T. Stead, 
of London, when he declared that— 

Prostitution is an effect, not a careless, voluntary choice on the part of the fallen. 
* * * The recruiting grounds of the bagnio are the stores, where girls work long 
hours for small pay; the homes that have few comforts and practically no pleasures. 

It must not be forgotten that the above statistics relate only to 
professional prostitutes, but are silent concerning the many thousands 
of kept women who live quietly in flats and apartments where their 
profession is not suspected. It is this class that are chiefly supplied 
from the better looking girls among the employees of the stores and 
sales departments. I might here also quote the words of Kate 
Richards O’Hare, a rescue-mission worker of many years’ experience, 
who says, estimating that there are 600,000 public prostitutes in the 
United States and as many more who clandestinely eke out an exist¬ 
ence by selling their virtue to make up for insufficient earnings: 

The purchasers of woman’s labor have taken into consideration the fact that she 
can eke out her earnings by the sale of her sex, and therefore have placed her wage 
below the cost of existence, and necessity compels that they sell their virtue for the 
bread their wages will not buy. * * * Ninety-nine per cent of the fallen women 
are those who have toiled long and earnestly in the endeavor to sustain life by labor 
and in the end have been forced to sell their sex as well as their labor power to the 
men who control the machinery of production. 

These citations, I trust, are sufficient to satisfy this committee that 
my assertion as to the insinuations of some employers when engaging 
women in their establishments is not an exaggeration, but a sad and 
appalling fact. 

Mr. Finley. If that is the case, is there not a law in this country 
to get after such people as that ? 

Dr. Frank. I certainly hope there is such a law. 

Mr. Finley. That is rather a serious statement to make. 

Mr. Dies. I think you are under a misapprehension. He made 
that statement with reference to the employment of women in depart¬ 
ment stores. 

Mr. Finley. I don’t care to whom it applies; whether it applies to 
the mercantile industry or to any other industry, whether govern¬ 
mental or private. 

Mr. Dies. Your statement had no reference to Government 
employees ? 

Dr. Frank. Oh, no. I am simply saying we do not want the Gov¬ 
ernment employees to be put upon that low economic basis upon 
'T^hich those are in institutions or this country which are controlled 
by greed. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


15 


Mr. Dies. As a matter of right, why should 90,000,000 people of 
the United States pay so much more for services they require than a 
private individual? 

Dr. Frank. Have you ever averaged up that service? Of course, 
I have not. I shall have to defer this matter to gentlemen who 
have details. For instance, I have been told that the average money 
that has been paid to Federal employees of this country—the average, 
I mean—is not a sufficient amount with which to raise their families. 
They can hardly live by scrimping, by economizing, and limiting 
themselves to the utmost. For instance, I was tolcl in New York 
City- 

The Chairman (interposing). If that is true, why do they remain 
in the service ? 

Mr. Dies. Why does everybody try to get in the service? Why 
is it there are thousands of applications for Government employment ? 

Dr. Frank. Why are there 10,000,000 unemployed in this country 
to-day ? 

Mr. Dies. I do not think there are. 

Dr. Frank. Or whatever the number may be. There are millions 
of them. 

Mr. Dies. I do not think you can substantiate any such state¬ 
ment, that there are millions of unemployed in this country. 

Dr. Frank. I beg your pardon. If I had known this matter was 
coming up I think I could be able very easily to refer you to authori¬ 
ties to show you there are nearly 10,000,000. 

Mr. Dies. Ten million unemployed ? 

Dr. Frank. So the statement has been made to me. 

Mr. Dies. Of adults ? 

Dr. Frank. So the statement is made. 

Mr. Dies. I can not believe it. 

Mr. Talcott. That is more than 10 per cent of the population of 
this country. 

Dr. Frank. That is the statement that has been made. If you 
will take the Encyclopedia of Economics- 

Mr. Dies (interposing). That is extremely shocking to my sense 
of statistics. 

Dr. Frank. Have you not heard that statement before ? 

Mr. Dies. Never. 

Dr. Frank. I am surprised. 

Mr. Dies. That number of unemployed? 

Dr. Frank. Why, certainly. 

Mr. Dies. Where are they? 

Dr. Frank. Look at the tramps traveling around the country. 
That is a good illustration. Here is another: For instance, I have 
a little country place of 15 acres upon the Hudson River, where I go 
in the summer. I went down the other day to take the train. There 
was a great big burly fellow at the station with handcuffs in his 
hand. As I stood there I saw a number of strange-looking fellows 
around. Pretty soon I saw this big fellow slip the handcuffs on a 
lot of them and go walking up the street. I asked where they came 
from, and was told they got them off the train. I said, “Do you 
mean to tell me you get a bunch like that off one train ?” He 
replied, “Yes, sir; every day. There may not be so many every 
day, but we get anywhere from 6 to 25. Once I had 40 bunched all 
together marching up the street in handcuffs.” 




16 RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 

They had not done any crime; they were not criminals, but they 
were handcuffed. You asked me where they came from. 

Mr. Talcott. What had they done ? 

Dr. Frank. They were beating rides. 

Mr. Dies. And every mother’s son of them could be employed on 
some good farm for $25 a month. 

Dr. Frank. How long would they be employed? For but a few 
weeks. Then they would have to go scampering over the country 
again. 

Mr. Dies. The idea of good strong healthy men not being able to 
find employment. 

Dr. Frank. Have you ever tried to get a job ? 

Mr. Dies. Yes. 

Dr. Frank. I have. I claim I am, personally, probably endowed 
with the average ability of human beings. And I want to say as an 
illustration that I spent, myself, four days in the city of Cincinnati, 
when I was a lad, full of the vigor of youth, at about 18 years of age, 
looking for a job. I was a boy of education. I spent four days in 
the city of Cincinnati traveling every important business street in 
that city trying to get employment, and could not get it. Do you 
tell me that condition does not prevail ? It seems to. 

Mr. Finley. Let us analyze that statement. As a matter of fact, 
30 per cent, or 30,000,000 of our people, are employed in agricultural 
pursuits. That leaves 60,000,000 of our people. Ten millions of that 
number would be quite a proportion. 

Dr. Frank. Have you ever stopped to think how long many of them 
are employed ? Have you ever been on the trains of the Northwestern 
and the Great Northern Railroads in the month of August ? I have. 
Have you ever seen the great mass of them that are swept up from 
Illinois and south of there to Wisconsin, to Dakota, and Minnesota, 
and put out on farms, where they stay—how long ? They gather up 
this great mass of unemployed for a few weeks only to gather the 
harvest, and then the army is scattered abroad to beg, steal, or starve. 

If you have ever been around Fleischmann’s Bakery in New York 
City, you will have seen 200 or 300 men, or more, in the bread line. 
These are all unemployed. Such castaways as these are perhaps 
rounded up for a few weeks to help out the rush season on the farms 
and then must again look hopelessly for employment till they turn up 
again at Fleischmann’s for a biscuit and a cup of coffee. 

Mr. Talcott. There is a similar condition during the hop season, 
but they are not only the unemployed. They come from factories, 
people who like to take a vacation in the country. They will take 
that opportunity of going out in the country and picking hops; a good 
healthy occupation. 

Dr. Frank. I am not referring to those. Those are mere factory 
girls who want an occupation. 

Mr. Talcott. And so I think in your case you will find those are 
not all unemployed, but that a large proportion are people who have 
some regular employment. 

Dr. Frank. I submit that is a good proposition for this committee 
to investigate. I submit, if you want the data and details, you ought 
to take the matter up and make an investigation. 

Mr. Dies. Don’t you know, as a matter of fact, that one of the 
great economic problems of this age is the scarcity of farm labor, 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 17 

and that the increased cost of living, the high price of production, is 
directly the result of the scarcity of farm labor, the scarcity of those 
who are willing to go out and cultivate the soil in our country ? 

Dr. Frank. Have you ever had experience in trying to get city 
men, men who are employed in commercial lines, to go out in the 
country and do work? 

Mr. Dies. That is not the fault of the Government. 

Dr. Frank. You must understand, too, that there are lots of these 
boys brought up in the city, and men, who are out of employment, 
who are not worth anything for farming, if they could get a chance 
at it. 

If you want me to tell what I think about that, I think the Depart¬ 
ment of Commerce and Labor has one of its great opportunities right 
there, to make an investigation of this whole proposition about which 
we are talking much at random here, and see if there is not the 
possibility of regulating the labor of this country, by letting different 
sections of the country know the wants of other portions in order 
that the demands of one section may be brought to the attention of 
another. 

In order to substantiate my statements as to the unemployed of the 
Nation, I wish to submit the following information to the committee: 

The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor published its report in 1887. 
It showed that for the year preceding the census taking out of 816,470 
persons engaged in gainful occupations there were 241,589 out of 
employment. That is, those unemployed represented 29.59 per cent 
of those who should be normally employed in the occupations con¬ 
sidered. 

It must of course be understood that by “unemployment” is not 
meant total unemployment, but merely tnat a portion of the time 
which should be devoted by artisans or hands to work is not so 
employed. As I shall soon show, the number in the entire country 
who are thus deprived and are therefore to be classed with the desti¬ 
tute approaches the appalling number of 10,000,000. 

Mr. C. D. Kellogg, of the New York Charity Organization Society, 
and Prof. R. T. Ely, of Wisconsin University, some years ago inde¬ 
pendently figured out that there then existed 3,000,000 persons in 
the United States who were receiving pauper aid. (See Encyclopedia 
of Social Reform, p. 1349.) 

Quoting from Robert Hunter’s recent work on Poverty, he says: 

In the last census the number found to be unemployed at some time during the 
year was 6,468,964, or 22.3 per cent of all workers over 10 years of age engaged in 
gainful occupations. * * * In manufacturing alone the unemployed ran to 27.2 
per cent of all the workers. 

The census taken in Massachusetts in 1895 showed 252,456 persons 
irregularly employed. This means that 27 per cent of all persons 
covered by the inquiry were idle some portion of the year. But this 
refers to the skilled artisans. 

Among the unskilled the conditions are far worse. This is shown 
by the report of the Federal Department of Labor (Ninth Special 
Report, Bureau of Labor, p. 29), where an examination was made of 
the Italian laborers in Chicago. It was there shown that of the 2,663 
employed in remunerative occupations 1,517, or 56.97 per cent, were 
unemployed some part of the year. It was shown that these 

563—11-2 



18 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


wretched laborers were actually employed on an average of only four 
months during the year, the remaining eight months being spent in 
enforced idleness. Now, when w r e consider the wages that they 
received we shall appreciate what unemployment for eight months 
means to them. The" average wage did not exceed $6 per week, and 
it ran down as low as $4.37 per week. 

Considering such facts as these, Robert Hunter makes the follow¬ 
ing comment and estimate: 

On the whole, it seems to me that the most conservative estimate that can fairly be 
made of the distress existing in the industrial States is 14 per cent of the total popula¬ 
tion, while in all probability no less than 20 per cent of the people of these States in 
ordinarily prosperous years are in poverty. This brings us to the conclusion that 
one-fifth, or 6,600,000 persons in the States of New York, Massachusetts, Connecti¬ 
cut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, are in poverty. 
Taking one-half of this percentage and applying it to other States, many of which have 
important industrial communities, * * * the conclusion is that 10,000,000 per¬ 
sons in the United States are in poverty. This includes the 4,000,000 who are esti¬ 
mated to be dependeht on some form of public relief. 

I submit, then, that I have not exaggerated when I stated that 
there were millions out of employment in this country, and that 
10,000,000 were so situated that they had not the opportunity to 
secure such means of livelihood as would sustain them above the 
poverty line, but are submerged to the ranks of paupers. I grant 
you this is an almost unbelievable state of affairs; but none should 
be more impressed by the facts than you gentlemen, who make the 
law T s of the land. 

If I may be pardoned for presuming to present further information 
on this sad condition to the committee, allow me to state that Wal¬ 
dron shows in his Manual of Currency and Wealth, a standard publi¬ 
cation, that there are— 

more than 4,000,000 families, or nearly one-third of all the families of the Nation, that 
must get along on less than $400 per year. More than half the families of the Nation 
get less than $600 per year. 

That is, 4,000,000 families would mean at least 12,000,000 souls 
(allowing only one child to a family) who are on the verge of destitu¬ 
tion, or at least must undertake to subsist on less than what is requi¬ 
site to any sense of comfort. What wonder, then, that thousands of 
children in the big cities go to school hungry, without any breakfast. 

Mr. Dies (interposing). You talk about the horror and inhumanity 
of the Government employing a man for some period, and seeing him 
get old and incapacitated. Is it not just as horrible to see an old 
farmer, who has farmed 40 or 50 years, get to that age where he can 
not continue in the activities of life; to see him, having worked all his 
life, get old, without a penny, and unable to continue his active work. 
Is not that horrible also ? 

Dr. Frank. Yes; but here is the point: He is responsible only to 
himself. In the other case, the man has been employed; he has given 
his services to the Government, which should take care of him after he 
has gotten old in the service. 

Let us cast aside the main principle for a moment and take the fiscal 
proposition; take the proposition of money. I think that will appeal 
to you. I think it w 7 ill appeal to the citizens of this country who want 
to see the Government conducted upon a business basis, and see 
whether or not there is a waste of the moneys that the Government 
is paying out. I am informed that there are a number of employees 



RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 19 

right here in Washington doing work that a boy for $200 or $300 a 
year could do, who are now so incapacitated they can not do the work 
for which they are being paid and for which they receive several 
thousand dollars a year. That means there are millions of dollars 
being wasted in this country in a similar manner. 

Mr. Dies. Those men are too old ? 

Dr. Frank. Too old to do their work, I am informed. They have 
exhausted their energies and they can not carry out the duties to 
which they have been assigned and for which they are remunerated. 
Do you deny it ? 

Mr. Dies. No; but I do not think there are a great many old men 
in the service. I saw a ‘statement yesterday that Justice Harlan was 
78 years old. He is doing the same work on the Supreme Bench as 
he did 40 years ago. 

Dr. Frank. Now, look here: You, doubtless, are scholar enough and 
possibly ph}’siologist enough to know that the use of the brain cells 
gives a man a better chance to live to an old age than in the case of the 
man who employs his nerve or muscle cells. That is the reason why 
such men as Mr. Justice Harlan live to a good old age in the full 
possession of their faculties. But the men who are compelled to use 
the lower cells of the body give out quicker. 

Now, gentlemen, I can not get it into my head that it is right to 
say to a man who has been employed many years by this Government, 
when he is worn out and exhausted—“Get out; we are through with 
you.” Great heaven; just put it to yourself. Suppose you were a 
man 60 years old- 

Mr. Dies (interposing). I am not demanding that the Government 
should turn out anybody when he becomes old. 

Dr. Frank. What I am contending is this: It is inhuman, it is bar¬ 
barous, savage, to say to a man, after he has been employed 30 or 40 
years by this Government and has reached the age, say, of 60 or 65 
years, and is now going around in a shaky way, with his nerve forces 
largely exhausted—I say it would be barbarous, damnable, for this 
great Government to insinuate that after it has used up all his vital 
energy he is to receive no further consideration and must be turned 
out like a broken-down horse to hunt for pasture where he can. 

Mr. Dies. What are you going to do with him ? 

Dr. Frank. Pension him; give him something to keep him in the 
last years of his life. I believe if we were to put that to a referendum 
vote, to the people of this Nation, if the matter was properly agitated 
and discussed and explained to the citizenship of this country, I do 
not believe you would get anything like a respectable minority that 
would oppose it. 

Take my own case. There is nothing to me in this. I am not a 
politician, either one way or the other. I am only a citizen, and my 
interest in this matter is prompted by the humane principles that 
underlie it. For instance, Dr. Jordan knows very well how I hap¬ 
pened to become interested in this movement. He heard me make a 
speech before the Civic Alliance, and thereupon remarked that it 
would be well to invite me to speak for the retirement organization. 
I made a speech at several of their meetings, and grew more and more 
interested in the question of the treatment by the Government of 
its employees; I became interested, as I believe all good citizens 
should, in what struck me as injustice and unnecessary inhumanity. 





20 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


But I saw a little further. I saw the proposition involved the funda¬ 
mental principle of sincere democracy and human brotherhood. 
But it is none the less a strictly business proposition. The great 
corporations of this and other countries are far in advance of this 
nation and are pensioning their old men.^ Now, why do they do this 
as a business proposition? They say they are saving money, for 
they are getting the younger generation to come in with new force 
and energy and do the work that the older men can no longer do. 
They are saved much depletion of their treasury by losses which these 
older men would cause them, because of their exhausted skill. So 
it is a good financial proposition on the part of these corporations 
to pension their older men. 

Now, if it is possible for these successful enterprises, the railroads 
and others, to provide pensions for their old employees, why is it 
not possible for the Government to do the same after a man has served 
it 30 or 40 years and given the best years of his life to that service ? 
These corporations say they do not lose money by it, and so, from a 
fiscal standpoint, why should the Government lose ? Why should 
they not benefit the same as the corporations ? 

Mr. Dies. What would you say to the proposition that when the 
Government employs a man upon a salary, that every month the 
Government takes out so much of his salary and puts it aside for 
him ? That is upon the assumption he will not do it for himself ? 

Dr. Frank. That is a detail that Congress must decide. That is 
a plan that is adopted by the English Government and also by the 
French Government. It is not adopted, I believe, by the German 
Government. That is a detail that can be studied out and finally 
decided by Congress. There are various opinions as to that propo¬ 
sition. 

All l am getting at is this: The purpose for which this organization 
stands and for which it invited me to make a speech here to-day is 
that something shah be done to advance the economic, financial, 
and domestic conditions of the employees of this Government, so 
that their salaries will be increased in the proper way, even if by 
slow stages. It can not be done all at once. Just make an entering 
wedge; just get a start, make an innovation or establish a precedent, 
so that the increase of salaries shall in some way be begun and the 
unpleasant economic embarrassment removed from the nearly half 
million men and women who are serving the nation in civil capacities. 

I have occupied more time than I should, and thank you for your 
considerate attention. 

STATEMENT OF ME. JOHN McELROY. 

Mr. McElroy. Gentlemen, it seems to me there is no use of wasting 
time upon the business principle involved in this matter. I appeal to 
you upon the ground of highest public policy. I think that the Gov¬ 
ernment of the United States should have the benefit of the very best 
service, the best intelligence, and the greatest integrity that it is 
possible to secure. Now, how is the best way to secure that? 

Along the line of what has been said by the gentleman who preceded 
me, I desire to say that I served the Government four years as a 
soldier, but I never would go into it again, because it has no induce¬ 
ments for a young man. There are no inducements for a young man 



RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


21 


to go into the United States service, who has any ambition in life. 
It seems to me that when the Government tries to obtain men it 
ought to offer inducements for the very best class of men that can 
enter the service and to remain in the service. There can be no better 
inducement, as has been proven by human experience, as has been 
proven by the experience of railroads and other corporations in this 
country, than to give the man an assurance of a livelihood when he 
has become superannuated. 

Forty-seven per cent, I understand, of the employees of railroads 
and the great manufactories are now under a pension system. 

The Chairman. What system? The taking of a certain part of 
their wage ? 

Mr. McElroy. Various systems. A general system is that which 
lias been studied out by the. New York Central and Pennsylvania, 
which gives a pension based upon the length of service and upon the 
average salary received in 10 years before they are retired. They are 
retired automatically. I have not the full information in regard to 
these systems, but I think the Pennsylvania system does it out of the 
funds of the company. 

Mr. Talcott. A straight pension? 

Mr. McElroy. Yes, sir. As it has been explained to me by those 
who are the recipients of this pension, they get a pension at a certain 
age, which will be based upon their earnings for the previous 10 years. 
Then the next element is the length of time they have been in the 
service. 

I am editor of the National Tribune, and I find all the time men 
coming into my office, Grand Army people; they come in to see me, 
and from them I have learned that this is a system which has been 
adopted by the great corporations and great railroads all over the 
country, and which applies to 47 per cent of all the employees of 
these corporations, as 1 nave been given to understand. They find it 
is good business policy, and I submit that the United States Govern¬ 
ment ought to lead us all in the matter of morals and justice and 
rightfulness, and not lag behind the corporations and tiie business 
men of this country in this important particular; they should cer¬ 
tainly not lag behind all the great civilized governments of the earth. 

Our civil service is to-day, I believe, the best in the world, but it 
has been made so by the men who are now in it—the men who went 
into it immediately after the war. I want to make a plea for the 
veterans who are now in civil service and who added to their good 
service to the country, a service of wonderful patriotism and devo¬ 
tion to the country, by following up this civil service and in maintain¬ 
ing its integrity. " It seems cruel that after all this work, after these 
40 years of service to the Government in civil life, added to the four 
years of service in the Army, that they should be turned out now 
without any compensation. 

Mr. Dies. Are they being turned out ? 

Mr. McElroy. I will say that 5 per cent of my time is taken up 
in going from one department to another trying to save some man 
from demotion or to secure him his place, and going to the President. 
I have been to the President repeatedly. The President has said no 
veteran shall be put upon the sidewalk, but the next day the man 
conies in and says, “I am put on the sidewalk.” You can make all 
the orders you please. You all know how well orders are carried out. 




22 RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 

There is a new element that is coining in here which is ambitious loi 
these salaries, and they are crowding out the old soldiers. 

Mr. Dies. Those veterans all draw pensions from the Government, 

don’t they? . TT , , ■ 

Mr. McElroy. Yes. I am glad you mentioned it. How much do 

you suppose they are drawing'? 

Mr. Dies. That would depend on the work in the Army. 

Mr. McElroy. I refer you to the report of the Commissioner of 
Pensions, which says they draw $170, on an average, a year. That is 
$3.40 a week for an old man to support himself and his wife. I am 
glad you asked that question. 

Mr. Dies. But none of them have been turned out of the Govern¬ 
ment service, I believe you said ? 

Mr. McElroy. No, I did not say that; very far from it. 

Mr. Dies. Didn’t you say the President said they should not be 
turned out ? 

Mr. McElroy. The President says that, but what the President 
says and what the underlings execute are two different things. We 
find continually that these men are being turned out. 

The Chairman. What per cent are being turned out now ? 

Mr. McElroy. I can not tell you. I hear of it constantly. They j 
come to me to get me to make an appeal for their restoration. I have j 
heard the President say that no matter what they made the law, they 
would take care of the Grand Army man. 

The Chairman. You say it is part of your business- 

Mr. McElroy (interposing). It is not my business. _ I 

The Chairman. Why can not you state what percentage is turned j 
out ? 

Mr. McElroy. It is not my business. 

The Chairman. Fifty per cent ? 

Mr. McElroy. No. It is not my business, because I am not 
officially designated for that purpose. : 

Mr. Dies. I confess the statement is very startling to me. It had 
been my information that the veterans of the Civil War in the depart¬ 
ments were not being turned out. 

Mr. McElroy. I will say this, that I think there have not been so 
many turned out during the past year. But I am speaking of 
individuals who have come into my office, where they have come in 
numbers, and they are coming in constantly- 

Mr. Dies. Are not those just isolated cases ? 

Mr. Finley. There might be good reasons advanced in some cases. 

Mr. McElroy. Wherever they are sufficient reasons, I drop the 
case. For example, a man called on me the other day. He is 74 
years old. He showed me his book. He had a page as large as that ; 
blotter [indicating] filled with columns of figures, and without an 
erasure or change. This man is 74 years old, you know. I looked 
at it, and they footed up $20,000,000. You see what that man is 
doing. And any day some immediate superior may say that man 
is inefficient, and you can not question it when his immediate superior 
says that, and he must be dismissed; you can not question that, 
because when you run up against that you are questioning the whole 
integrity of the Government. 

Mr. Dies. That is a phase of this question I would be glad to have 
discussed. To say that one or two men, here and there, out of tens 











RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


23 


of thousands, are let out of the service, would not amount to so much, 
but if there is a general movement of turning out old veterans who 
are in the Government service, I think the data on that point would 
be very interesting to this committee. 

Mr. McElroy. It has not been my business to collate this data. 
I have only taken these instances that have come to my attention. 

Coming back to the other principle, it does seem to me- 

Mr. Talcott (interposing). Your argument is for a pension sys¬ 
tem that will take care of these old soldiers as well as others who are 
superannuated, and treat them fairly? 

Mr. McElroy. Yes. I heard the other day that here in the Post 
Office Department, which you gentlemen must know, they had sent 
an inquiry around through the whole Post Office Department to 
find out what amount of pension each man got, and every man’s 
salary was reduced to the extent of his pension which he was re¬ 
ceiving. 

Mr. Dies. That would be an outrage. 

Mr. McElroy. It was told me; I have not investigated it. 

Mr. Dies. Might not that be merely a false report that is flying 
around ? 

Mr. McElroy. No, I think not. I know the false reports and I 
know the others. 

Mr. Dies. Let me get that statement down. You say the Post 
Office Department is finding out what pensions the old soldiers draw 
from the Government, and that they are reducing their salaries an 
amount equivalent to it? 

Mr. McElroy. Yes. 

Mr. Dies. If that is true, it is an outrage. 

Mr. Finley. That statement seems to me not based on facts. I 
can not believe it is based on facts. 

Mr. McElroy. If it is material to this committee, I will find the 
evidence. 

Mr. Finley. It seems to me no such accusation or intimation 
should be made to this committee, unless you can back it up with 
facts. 

Mr. McElroy. Very good, if you gentlemen desire it. 

The Chairman. You ought to have the facts before making such a 
statement. 

Mr. McElroy. I told you it was a rumor. 

The Chairman. You ought not to come here and make charges 
unless you are prepared to back them up. 

Mr. McElroy. In the first place, I told you it was merely a rumor. 

Mr. Dies. I thought you stated it was a fact? 

Mr. McElroy. No. 

Mr. Dies. It would be so horrible, so inhuman, that I could not 
believe it, unless there was positive evidence of it. 

The Chairman. The committee has no time to hear rumors. What 
we want are facts. 

Mr. McElroy. If it is material to this committee, I will furnish the 
proof. 

The Chairman. If you can obtain the proof, we would be glad to 
have it. 

Mr. Talcott. I think as long as the question has been raised, it 
would be valuable to have it proven or disproven. 



24 RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 

Mr. McElroy. I will investigate it and give you the facts. A 
number of men told me thej^ had been reduced on that ground. 
That is all I can say. 

All I desire to say is that it is a high business principle that the 
Congress of the United States can not. afford to forget. I am 
appealing for the veterans, because I am most interested in them. . I 
know how incapable they are after leaving the Government service 
to earn a livelihood in any other line. 

I thank you, gentlemen, for your attention. 

STATEMENT OF ME. FULTON E. GOEDON. 

Mr. Gordon, gentlemen, I would like to make just a few prelimi¬ 
nary remarks before leading up to the Lloyd bill, so that you will 
understand my position. Living in Washington 20 years, I have 
heard a great deal about the unfortunate condition of the civil 
department of our Government and the injustice that is being inflicted 
upon the clerks through discriminating methods. So last winter, 
feeling the clerks could not petition themselves, on account of the 
Taft and Roosevelt muzzle order, I undertook as a private citizen 
to call a monster mass meeting, which I did. I had at that meeting 
6,000 persons, and newspapers have taken it up all over the country 
and an organization was effected. A little later Mr. J. W. Buck 
organized the National Civil Service Improvement Association. 

In this connection I have to bring up a little matter which I do 
not do in unkindness to Mr. Buck, with all respect to him, and with 
respect to you gentlemen. As secretary of our association, he made 
a remark one night at a meeting to the effect that Congress should 
be horsewhipped. 

Mr. Buck. I quoted- 

Mr. Gordon (interposing). I will let you explain that in your own 
time. 

Mr. Dies. He said that certain ones who voted certain ways should 
be horsewhipped. 

Mr. Gordon. On account of that remark it frightened the officers 
of that association, who did not want to be in the attitude of being 
disrespectful to Congress, and we all sent in our resignations. 

The Chairman. Did he say they were going to be horsewhipped 
or should be horsewhipped? [Laughter.] 

Mr. Gordon. Or words to that effect. As a matter of fact, I do 
not think what he said was reported accurately. 

I want to say to you that all the business men of Washington have 
every confidence in you gentlemen. We have no representative 
here, but we feel you all are our representatives, and we have every 
confidence in you, gentlemen, and feel that you will exercise the high¬ 
est wisdom in our behalf. 

Another thing I would like to impress upon you gentlemen is the 
importance of this committee. I look upon it as absolutely the most 
important committee now at the Capitol, for the reason that you have 
the management and control of a payroll of $400,000,000—at least 
that—the largest pay roll in the world. 

Mr. Dies. And you want to increase that, too. 

Mr. Gordon. Yes, I would in some cases. There are some cases 
where it ought to be diminished. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


25 


The Chairman. Can you name any cases where it ought to be 
diminished ? 

Mr. Gordon. Quite a good many. The rank and file should be 
increased, but there are quite a good many who do not earn their 
salaries. 

To show the importance of this committee again, it concerns the 
welfare of 400,000 employees. Taking in their families it runs up to 
a million persons, the happiness of which you have in your hands. 
If there ever was a chance for a grand patriotic work you have it 
now; to take a bold stand and put these employees upon the proper 
basis. It can not all be done at once. It will take a good many years 
to straighten things out; but things should not go on as they are now. 
Senator Aldrich said if you would put a business man at the head 
of the Government he could save $200,000,000 a year. I believe that. 
I believe if you increase the pay of the rank and file and give them the 
proper incentive, so that they can exercise their ambition, you would 
see greatly increased results. They can not exercise their ambition 
now. It is destro} r ed. 

Mr. Finley. We are getting at it as fast as we can. 

Mr. Gordon. I want to trj' and help you a little. When Mr. Buck 
made those remarks, I said that was not the proper way to approach 
Congress. I said the reason Congress had not removed these evils 
was because they did not know about them. They increased their 
own pay, and that was right and proper—they were justified; and I 
said they would do the right thing for the clerks when the matter 
was properly presented. That is my honest conviction. I believe 
you will. 

If I understand the Lloyd bill, it is virtually permitting the clerks 
to organize. I see no objection to their organizing for their own 
mutual benefit. You would permit them to organize on these lines. 
If you will grant them a charter from Congress and permit them to 
organize, you can add certain restrictions; and if you will do that 
you will strike one of the grandest blows you ever struck for good 
government. 

Suppose you should give a charter to Government clerks to organ¬ 
ize, advise "them to petition Congress with an annual message each 
year, and advise them if they petition through that organization and 
not as individuals it would receive preference—give everybody, eveyy 
charwoman, a chance to become a part of the organization and to 
bring their grievances to you gentlemen through their organization, 
after boiling down the facts, and if they come to you with proper 
grievances, remedy them. In this way every employee will have an 
equal chance, the standard will be raised, and you will give them an 
opportunity to exercise their ambition. 

You can put these restrictions on the organization: Prescribe an 
oath—first, they shall not strike; they shall not advocate a strike, 
neither shall they resign in groups or body, and they shall not affiliate 
with outside organizations. 

I tell you, if you do that, you will have the grandest organization in 
the world; you will have a" constant repair shop constantly at work 
remodeling every department, from the smallest department up to 
the White^House, and that is what you want. 

Mr. Dies. You would not have them associate or affiliate with 
labor ? 


26 RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 

Mr. Gordon. No. 

Mr. Dies. You do not think Government employees should have 
the right to strike ? 

Mr. Gordon. No, sir: if you do, you are striking against yourself. 
The Government clerk is the Government. I am opposed to strikes. 
One of the papers recently published here that I advocated strikes; 
but that was a slip of the pen. That was not true. I am opposed to 
them, and I am opposed to boycotting. I believe if they come here 
with the proper evidence and the facts, and put them before you, as 
intelligent people, you will right the wrong. 

Mr. Dies. Under the law of the United States and the rulings of 
the departments, Government clerks of every grade can come to 
Congress through their departments; that is, up the various grades 
in the Post Office Department, for instance, through the Postmaster 
General; and the employees of other departments through their 
superiors to the heads of those departments. 

Mr. Gordon. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Dies. And the heads come to Congress. Congress looks to the 
heads of the departments for the rectitude of the service. 

Mr. Gordon. Yes. 

Mr. Dies. Now then, you advocate an (organization of the employ¬ 
ees of the Government, and you would let them come to Congress 
without consulting the heads of the departments, or their superiors, 
but come directly to Congress. Then to whom would Congress look, 
and who would be responsible for the Government then ? To whom 
should Congress look for the rectitude of the service ? 

Mr. Gordon. You could look to both. You could hear the clerk. 
You could not get the truth from the heads of the departments. 
They have got to tell you it is all right. If I am the head of a business 
and if I tell you it is thus and so, the responsibility rests on me. If 
you want the truth, you have to get it from the clerks. 

Mr. Dies. If the head of a department would not tell you the truth, 
why would the head of an organization tell the truth ? 

Mr. Gordon. That is for you gentlemen to determine. They must 
bring the evidence. You gentlemen are the judges. 

Mr. Dies. When we say to the head of an organization that the 
Government service is retrograding, he is under no obligation to us; 
but when we say to the head of a department the service is retro¬ 
grading, that he is not giving the proper service to the public, we 
have a man before us then who is the responsible party, responsible 
to the Government, responsible to Congress. In the other case we 
have a man, who is responsible to those who made him the head of the 
labor organization, and who is not responsible either to the Govern¬ 
ment or to Congress. 

Mr. Gordon. Every employee is responsible to the Government, 
and I consider one employee’s word as good as another man’s word. 
I think you should bear both, and you gentlemen should act as 
judges, not as mere Congressmen; but you should hear the matter as 
a court and go b^ the facts that are put before you. 

Another thing in the Lloyd bill. It says that when you discharge 
a man you must give him notice in writing and give him a chance to 
answer in writing. That will not remedy the evil. If a man has 
the power to discharge you, whether in writing or not, he is going to 
do it, whether it is verbal or in writing. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


27 


Mr. Dies. Do von want to take away the power to discharge? 

Mr. Gordon. No. Organize a court of appeals, and you will have 
solved the difficulty. Let a man progress as he does in the Army, 
according to time of service; that is, promote him according to time 
of service; take away from the minor officers the right to discharge 
and demote; give him the right to keep the man’s record; if he places 
a demerit against him, let the man go before the court of appeals and 
clear himself if he is not guilty. Make that court of appeals immune 
from influence; make it a criminal offense to approach it; make it 
absolutely one that the clerks would have confidence in. Unless it 
is one the clerks have full confidence in, you know, it is not all right. 
If you do this, it will be a guaranty to the clerks that they are going 
to get fair treatment, and you will have their confidence. Adopt this 
plan, the court of appeals, gentlemen, and the clerks will double their 
work. Give them a chance. Don’t muzzle their ambition; don’t 
destroy it. 

Mr. Dies. Gen. Stewart, the Second Assistant Postmaster General, 
said here before the committee some days ago that in his department 
there were 17,000 men in the postal mail service, and that last year 
33J per cent of them were promoted. 

Mr. Gordon. Yes; they have a scale of promotions in some depart¬ 
ments, but they ought to agree upon a promoting plan for all the 
departments along this line and have a minimum pay. Make your 
minimum pay about the same as the Army clerks—$1,250 a year. 

Mr. Dies. Can you give me the percentage of promotions in any of 
the departments here ? 

Mr. Gordon. No. 

Mr. Dies. Might it not be as great ? 

Mr. Gordon. They promote, but it is not done fairly. I want it 
done fairly. 

Mr. Dies. As I understand you, you have no facts to present. 

Mr. Gordon. I have not the percentages } 7 ou request; no, sir. 
That would be very difficult to obtain. 

Mr. Dies. How can you say there are not enough promotions ? 

Mr. Gordon. No; I say the promotions are unfair, and I say the 
pay is not fair. The rank and file are underpaid. The rank and file 
average about $800 a year. 

Let me illustrate a case to you, that is, how unfair they are in making 
promotions; a case of which I know. The other day a young man 
was slated for a promotion of $200 a year. It meant a lot to him. 
He had a family. A few days before he was to get that promotion, 
without any notice whatever, he was notified that he was transferred 
to another department. He had gained this promotion according 
to time of service and efficiency. It belonged to him. But he is 
transferred to another department in order to get him out of the.way; 
not as desirable work, not as good pay, and a married woman in his 
office, whose husband is also in the department, and whose record is 
not as good as his, receives the promotion because of the influence of 
a prominent politician at the Capitol. 

This is your present plan of promotion. In my court of appeals, 
the chief clerk would keep this man’s record. If his record is bad, 
he could not receive a promotion. If an unjust demerit is placed 
against that man, he goes to the court of appeals and clears himself. 

Mr. Dies. Yes; but" if you had a court of appeals for 411,000 
Government employees- 



28 RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OE EMPLOYEES. 

Mr. Gordon (interposing). Lord bless me! lou would have to 
have a number of courts. You. would not have merely one court. 
Of course, that would not be enough. But it will pay you. It will 
be the best investment you ever made in your life for the Government. 

Mr. Dies. I would like to ask you one question. The members of 
your court of appeals would have to be men. would they not ? 

Mr. Gordon. Yes; but they w'ould be high-grade men. 

Mr. Dies. But the heads of your departments are high-grade men, 
too; and they surety would have no selfish purpose in keeping a good 
man down and putting a bad man up. What reason have you for 
believing the court would be fairer to the great body of employees 
than the heads of the departments would be ? 

Mr. Gordon. Take our courts on the outside. They do not enter 
into the selfish part. They act on the lav/ and the evidence. This 
court would have to act upon evidence. Besides, they would be 
immune from influence. The clerk that has a demerit placed against 
him under this plan would have the right to go before that court, 
if he is not guilty, and clear himself. Just the same as you or 1 
can do before our courts of law. 

Mr. Dies. Don’t you know that if the clerks who work for the 
Government were not responsible to their superiors- 

Mr. Gordon. Yes; they are. 

Mr. Dies (continuing)/And should go over them to the court, 
that insubordination would be established in all the departments? 

Mr. Gordon. But they are responsible. The minor official superin¬ 
tends him, keeps his record, and he can not hold his position unless he 
keeps that record clear. If he merits a bad record, the court of 
appeals can remove him, or demote him, like an Army court-martial 
does in reference to an Army clerk. And that is the plan I think 
should be pursued in the Government service. Take the case of the 
Army clerk, his minimum pay is $1,250. He starts at $1,250. He 
is promoted according to time of service and efficiency. After a cer¬ 
tain time he goes up to about $2,000. 

Suppose the employee could get up to that in the civil service. 
Would that not result in better grade of men and women in the depart¬ 
ments? Would the clerk not have a valuable life estate to protect? 
Would he not be under a bond to give the Government his best efforts 
instead of inferior efforts ? Take this young man to whom I referred 
a few minutes ago, in reference to his transfer. Do you know what 
that man is doing now ? He is holding on to the job lie has with one 
hand, drawing the salary, and with the other preparing himself to 
enter business on the outside, which he will be able to do in a few 
months, and then he will send in his resignation. That is going on 
constantly in all the departments. Fifteen thousand resigned in a 
year, an increase of 400 per cent in eight years. 

Mr. Dies. Do you know how many employees are applying for 
Government jobs? 

Mr. Gordon. I know it is very large. 

Mr. Dies. Who have already "taken the examination? 

Mr. Gordon. I know it is very large. But if they knew the truth 
they would not make application. I don’t believe that one of vou 
gentlemen, if you have a son, as I have, would permit him to enter 
the Government employ. I would not permit my son to enter, if I 
could prevent it. Why, Mr. Champ Clark, the head of vour House 



RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 29 

who may be the next President, possibly, made a public speech the 
other day and advised young men not to go into the departments. 

Mr. Dies. Don’t you know he was talking to his constituency back 
home, about half of whom are trying to get into the Government 
service ? 

Mr. Gordon. I don’t think you would let your son go in, anyhow. 

Now, Government salaries are about on the same basis now they 
have been for years—that is, as to the rank and file, and the rank and 
file is what I am after. But the standard of living is not the same 
now as it was years ago; it is not like it used to be. A man can not 
take his proper position in life on what the Government pays him. 
And if he goes in, lie has no opportunity to exercise his ambition as 
we have on the outside. I have not a relative in the departments, 
to my knowledge, and I am glad I have not. I am spending money— 

I have spent considerable money myself—and expect to continue to 
spend it to be of assistance to these clerks. 

The Chairman. Mr. Gordon, a great deal has been said here about 
stifling the ambition of young men. 

Mr. Gordon. Yes, sir! 

The Chairman. What is vour method of opening the door of hope 
to them? 

Mr. Gordon. Just what I said, the establishment of this court of 
appeals, and a minimum pay, sa}^, of $1,200 per year, and establish 
the top at, say, $1,800. 

Mr. Dies. Is that any very great inducement to hand out to a 
genius ? 

Mr. Gordon. I am speaking of the clerks. I am not speaking of 
business men or professional men. 

The Chairman. How do you measure that ambition ? 

Mr. Gordon. Give him a chance to show what he can do. If he 
conducts himself properly and does efficient work, and keeps his 
record clean, he will go up probably to $2,000 in old age and be 
retired at two-thirds pay. If he is a clerk, he is going to try and 
hold that record. He has that valuable life estate to protect. 

The Chairman. If you give him $2,000, would he not want $3,000 ? 

Mr. Gordon. If that man makes himself efficient, he might- 
become an officer. I advocate a school similar to West Point- 

Mr. Dies (interposing). Is there greater efficiency among Gov¬ 
ernment clerks who receive $1,800 a year than there is among those 
who receive $1,000? 

Mr. Gordon. No, sir; very little difference. That is the fault of 
the management. I want to tell you I can take you down to the 
Treasury, where young ladies are working, all drawing from $500 
and $600 up to $1,400, and all doing the same work. It is a shame, 
and } r ou should not permit it. 

The Chairman. Tell us how to regulate it. 

Mr. Gordon. Establish a minimum pay of $1,200 to clerks. 
Have this court of appeals. Have a minor official or superintendent 
to keep these records. If a man’s record is not good, present the 
facts to the court of appeals and have him discharged. Make it 
broad and powerful. Then you will remedy it. But treat all the 
clerks alike. Do away with this favoritism. 

Mr. Dies. But, do you think this court of appeals, with jurisdiction 
over a great many thousand clerks, would know better when to 


30 RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 

demote and promote than the immediate superior of the man who 
would have no selfish purpose ? # - ,, 

Mr. Gordon. The immediate superior does know, but he don t go 
by what he knows. He is governed by outside influence. 1 hey move 
a man about just like you would checkers on a board. If you had 
lived in Washington as long as I have you would believe what I say. 

Mr. Dies. And yet it is a fact that in the department stores and 
in the avenues of private employment all over Washington men and 
women are paid much less wages, much less salary, than in the Gov¬ 
ernment service. 

Mr. Gordon. You must not compare them with Government clerks. 
The class of clerks with whom Government clerks should be compared 
are to be found in banks and great corporations. And look how they 
treat their employees. Take the Standard Oil and the Tobacco 
Trust. Their salaries are better, they have the merit system, and the 
pension system. There is opportunity there for reward for efficiency 
and ambition. Take our department stores: They hire young chil¬ 
dren, girls and boys. They are not supposed to stay in there very 
long. When they learn something they get out. That is not a fair 
comparison to compare Government clerks with clerks in stores, 
because the character of work is not the same and the same amount 
of intelligence is not required. 

But take the bank clerk. You will find no clerk in a bank that 
gets under $1,200, except boys who are just learning, and they go up to 
$2,500. You do not hear of any kicks among them, because they are 
treated like human beings. 

Gentlemen, I am going to quit now, unless you want to ask me some 
more questions. 

Mr. Dies. I will ask you this one: At some time during the hearing, 
will you bring to the committee some authentic data as to the number 
of employees in the Government and the character of their service 
and the amount of their pay—facts that show they are unfairly 
demoted and not fairly promoted; or some other set of data or facts 
that will give the committee a chance to make some reform in the civil 
service ? It will be a matter of some interest to this committee. 

Mr. Gordon. If you will summon men from the departments, and 
shut that door, and let in no newspaper reporter or representative in 
here, so that what the man says will never be known, we will startle 
this country by what he will tell you. But if what he says is to be 
known to all, you will not get it from him, because he would lose his 
position, and that he can not afford to do, because he can not get 
another position in a day. 

Our good friend, Mr. Godwin, the chairman, says he has received a 
great many anonymous letters. Gentlemen, those who write these 
letters are drowning men catching at straws, writing anonymous let¬ 
ters, because they know they would lose their positions if they were 
to tell their names. I do not believe ordinarily in anonymous letters; 
but what else can these poor people do ? 

In answer, here is my idea: Make the Government clerk a 
partner- 

Mr. Dies. But you have not brought any facts to this committee 
that the Government is not treating its employees well. ’ 

Mr. Gordon. You can not get at the facts, without you bring the 
men here, without putting them under oath. You can not do that. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


31 


Mr. Dies. Then it is a waste of time to talk glittering generalities. 

Mr. Gordon. I can bring evidence; but you have so much more 
power. It is your place. 

Mr. Dies. We have been getting mighty little of it. Gentlemen 
appearing before us have spent time talking in general terms. 

Mr. Gordon. How much time could I have to'get you that evidence 
together ? 

The Chairman. Any time during the summer. 

Mr. Gordon. I. will see what I can do to get evidence to prove to 
you that promotions and demotions are made according to the likes 
or dislikes of minor officials, and the powerful influence on the out¬ 
side, and that merit counts for very little. 

I will say, though, there is one department here where I have been 
told by the clerks that the rule of promotions is on the square. I 
wish you would summon that gentleman before you. I know him 
only by reputation. It is Gen. Ainsworth, in the War Department. 
His organization is on the basis of Army promotions. You know the 
plan. I understand if a Congressman goes up there and tries to exert 
influence he can not do a thing. It is absolutely on the square. 
He keeps the man’s record and gives it to him eveiy six months when 
he is entitled to promotion. He knows just how he is progressing 
and just when he is entitled to promotion. That is the plan pur¬ 
sued by Gen. Ainsworth in the War Department, and I say, God 
bless him for it. He is the only one I know of in Washington. I 
thank you very much. 

STATEMENT OF DR. LLEWELLYN JORDAN, SECRETARY OF THE 

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENT ASSOCIATION. 

Dr. Jordan. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the 
time is drawing to a close and I have very little left in which to bring 
to your attention what I have to say. 

I am here for the purpose of urging before this committee the 
absolute necessity, from my viewpoint, of taking up seriously the 
question of superannuation as it affects the classified civil service 
of the entire country; and. considered in connection with that im¬ 
portant question, a sensible and businesslike reclassification or 
regrading of the salaries of those employees who constitute what is 
known as the classified civil service of this country. 

We have heard much discussion about the improvement of the 
service and increased efficiency. Dr. Frank has touched upon it, 
and every speaker to whom I have listened has referred to it. The 
President of the United States and the members of his Cabinet are 
at the present time engaged, through committees, in an attempt to 
reorganize within the present constituted service the personnel, and 
to reform the work so as to get the highest possible efficiency out of 
the present working force. 

The members of those committees are confronted at the threshold 
of their labors with what to do with the superannuated employees, 
how to treat them fairly without separating them from the service. 

Further than that, we find, as has been referred to by one speaker, 
that there are men and women doing the same kind of work and re¬ 
ceiving grossly different pay. That condition was sought in a mea¬ 
sure to be remedied by the committee under its former chairman and 


32 RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 

a reclassification bill approved by that committee, and I assume by 
the majority of it, was reported to the House; but hke the retirement 
bill it of course received no consideration. 

I feel that no real improvement can be made in the classffied civil 
service of our country until this reclassification scheme, whatever it 
may be, is adopted. Men and women doing the same kind of work 
should be paid, according to the wisdom of Congress, salaries com¬ 
mensurate with the work performed. 

Let us turn for an example, if you will, briefly, to Canada. In the 
Canadian civil service they have grades. and divisions. Men and 
women enter at a minimum salary, and within that particular grade 
to which they are appointed there are several subdivisions or sub¬ 
grades. Within each one of those grades or grand divisions are estab- 
fished what are known as efficiency boards. I shall not take your 
time to detail to you how these efficiency boards are created. 

But suffice it to say that twice a year, on the 1st of January and the 
1st of July, men and women are rated. Their ratings are made public. 
They are open to the inspection of the rank and file. 

The idea has been borrowed in part by Gen. Ainsworth and applied, 
as I am informed, with a great deal of fidelity in his department, so 
that an individual knows, from month to month, assuming his effi¬ 
ciency is maintained, that he is going to get a promotion within that 
grade when a vacancy occurs. 

Now, then, when he is to pass from one grade or one division to a 
higher he is subjected to an academic test. He is tested principally 
upon his work, the character of work, and general routine of his 
office or of his bureau. 

In that service they have the higher positions, known as the super¬ 
visory grades, open to men and women. So that an individual 
entering the Canadian civil service, which is modeled somewhat after 
the English, can always feel that if he is efficient and proves and 
demonstrates it, he can graduate into the higher and more responsi¬ 
ble supervisory grades. In this way a steady flow of promotions 
is maintained, very much after the plan now fallowed in our Army, 
Navy, Revenue-Cutter Service, and the Marine Corps. 

I believe that the civil service of this country must be put upon 
some such basis; such a plan has been repeatedly advocated by those 
in responsible authority. Mr. Roosevelt first advocated it, and later 
it was advocated by Mr. Taft. The National Civil Service Reform 
League, which is responsible in a great measure for the merit prin¬ 
ciple as applied to the Federal service, has repeatedly advocated 
and urged this reclassification and reform, as well as every bureau 
officer. 

Now, then, when you have men and women put upon a proper 
basis, where they can look forward with reasonable hope to advance¬ 
ment, and they are receiving a pay commensurate with the work per¬ 
formed, then if you can couple with that some sensible and humane 
way of separating these people from the service when their ability or 
usefulness has ended, you will then, in my judgment, have brought 
the classified civil service of this country to a position where you will 
get the best brains and the highest intelligence of the men and 
women who want to serve this country usefully and loyally, as we 
all try to do or should try to do; and you will not invite, as"you are 
now inviting, in my judgment, men to come into the Government 
service simply to make it a stepping-stone to something better. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


33 


It is to be regretted, from my viewpoint, that Congressmen advise 
their constituents, as I was advised by my Congressman, not to enter 
the civil service; that if I did every hope was abandoned. I did not 
take that viewpoint about it, because when I came into the civil 
service I immediately began to study the conditions of the service, in 
the hope that I might be able to contribute something toward the 
general improvement of the service by urging a businesslike reclassi¬ 
fication of salaries, and the enactment of an equitable retirement law. 

Departing slightly from the point of my remarks, I can say that I 
do not know' to-day within the city of Washington a man or woman 
who represents Claiborne County, in the State of Mississippi, other 
than myself. If there be any here, I have not had the pleasure of 
meeting them, not because they have not been invited to come into 
the service, but because they believe there is absolutely no hope of 
their advancement. 

Now, that is not right. This civil end of our Government must be 
run upon standardized, scientific, businesslike principles, and the 
Government should offer to the men and women who come to serve 
it the best opportunities for service; they should give to these people 
the encouragement of believing that when they come into the service 
they are going to be advanced, if they prove themselves efficient and 
meritorious. 

Mr. Dies. Don’t you believe, Doctor, as a matter of fact, that there 
are thousands upon thousands of men employed by the Government 
who render practically no service and who are kept upon the Govern¬ 
ment’s pay rolls as a sinecure ? 

Dr. Jordan. I am whiling to admit, Mr. Dies, that there are men 
and women in the service who do not earn the full salary which is paid 
to them But I wall state this, and I can prove it by facts that are 
absolutely incontrovertible, that from one end of this country to the 
other the great majority of men and women who serve this Govern¬ 
ment give to it loyal service, and they give more than they are 
paid for, measured by the dignity and the standing which you want 
them to maintain. 

Now, if I could appear in the presence of my superiors as I would 
appear upon my farm in Maryland, if I did not have to support a 
dignity and try to raise my family with the same due regard for high 
citizenship that a Congressman or a Senator feels that he should in 
his efforts to perpetuate and uphold the institutions of this country, 
then I could live on one-half the salary I am now compelled to try 
to live on. There are men and women to-day in the Treasury 
Department, of whom I have knowledge, who are getting only $60 
a month, who are trying to meet all the demands of citizenship in 
this community, where the cost of living, which you gentlemen in 
Congress have experienced, has gone up, where they can not live 
decently to save their lives and keep themselves out of the hands of 
the loan sharks. 

Now I could tell you pitiful tales. I come in contact with the rank 
and file of that great department. I go into their homes. I see 
them when sick. I see them under conditions that a lawyer does not 
see them, that even the clergyman does not see them. 

In conclusion, I wish to submit for the consideration of the com¬ 
mittee a draft of a bill which seeks to increase the general efficiency 

563—11-3 


34 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


of the civil service through the means of a reclassification of the pres¬ 
ent salaries and the enactment of an equitable plan of retirement. 

This bill has been drafted with a view to carrying out some of the 
ideas which now form a part of the Canadian civil service. The bill 
divides the employees into grades, and within each grade subdivisions 
are created and salaries fixed for each particular subdivision within 
each grade or grand division. 

The bill contemplates the creation of efficiency boards. These 
boards will rate and determine the relative efficiency semiannually of 
all employees to whom the provisions of the bill apply. 

In order that the salaries may be standardized with respect to the 
character of work performed a board of estimates has been provided 
for, to which all annual estimates for salaries will be submitted for 
study and general adjustment before transmission to Congress. 
Other features of the bill deal with the subjects of hours of labor, 
leaves of absence, removals from the service, and, finally, a plan for 
the mutual bonding of all employees in the civil service who serve the 
Government in a fiduciary capacity. 

It is hoped that a further opportunity will be given for detailed 
hearings on the several retirement bills now pending before your 
committee. The United States Civil Service Retirement Association 
which I represent as secretary has indorsed the Austin bill, which 
provides for a general increase of salaries of 15 per cent and a con¬ 
tributory plan of retirement. The retirement features of this bill 
are generally acceptable to the employees of the classified civil 
service provided the salary increase provision is retained. 

Exhibit A. 

A BILL To increase the efficiency of the executive civil service. 

CREATION OF ANNUITY FUND. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That from and after the first day of July next following the pass¬ 
age of this act there shall be deducted and withheld monthly from the monthly salary, 
pay, or compensation of every officer or employee in the classified civil service of the 
Government, except such of them as may not elect to become subject to the provisions 
of this act as provided in section fourteen, an amount, computed to the nearest tenth 
of a dollar, the sum total of which will be sufficient, with interest thereon at five per 
centum per annum, compounded annually, to purchase, from the United States, 
under the provisions of this act, an annuity for every such officer or employee, payable 
quarterly throughout life, from and after arrival at the age of retirement as herein¬ 
after provided, equal to one and one-half per centum of his annual salary, pay, or 
compensation for every full year of service or major fraction thereof between the said 
first of July and the arrival of the officer or employee at the age of retirement. The 
deductions hereby provided for shall be based on such annuity table as the Secretary 
of the Treasury may direct and shall bear interest at the rate of five per centum per 
annum, compounded annually, and such deductions shall be varied to correspond 
with any change or changes in the salary, pay, or compensation of the officer or 
employee. 

INVESTMENT OF ANNUITY FUND. 

Sec. 2. That the amounts so deducted and withheld from the salary, pay, or com- 

E ensation of each officer or employee shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United 
tates and shall be credited,. together with interest at five per centum per annum, 
compounded annually, to an individual account of the officer or employee from whose 
salary, pay, or compensation the deduction is made. The moneys so deducted and 
the income derived therefrom may from time to time be deposited in savings banks 
designated by the Secretary of the Treasury for that purpose: Provided, however, That 
the savings banks receiving such deposits shall pay interest thereon at a rate of not 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


35 


less than four per centum per annum, compounded semiannually. For the safe¬ 
keeping and prompt payment of the moneys deposited with them and the interest 
thereon the Secretary of the Treasury shall require the savings banks to give satisfac¬ 
tory security,-by the deposit of bonds of the United States, bonds or other interest- 
bearing obligations of any State of the United States, or any legally authorized bonds 
issued for municipal purposes by any city or town in the United States that has been 
in existence as a city or town for a period of twenty-five years, and which for a period 
of ten'years previous to such deposit has not defaulted in the payment of any part of 
either, principal or interest of any funded debt duly contracted by said city or town, 
and which has at such date more than twenty-five thousand inhabitants, as estab¬ 
lished by the latest national census, and whose net indebtedness does not exceed five 

{ >er centum of the valuation of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the 
ast preceding valuation of property for the assessments of taxes; or any legally author¬ 
ized bonds issued for municipal purposes by any city or town in the United States 
that has been in existence as a city or town for a period of twenty-five years, and 
which for a period of ten years previous to such deposit has not defaulted in the pay¬ 
ment of any part of either principal or interest of any funded debt authorized or con¬ 
tracted by said city or town, and which has at the date of deposit more than two hun¬ 
dred thousand inhabitants, as established by the last national census, and whose net 
indebtedness does not exceed seven per centum of the valuation of the taxable prop¬ 
erty therein, to be ascertained by the last preceding valuation of property for the 
assessment of taxes. In this clause the words “net indebtedness” mean the indebt¬ 
edness of any city or town, omitting debts created for supplying the inhabitants with 
water, and debts created in anticipation of taxes to be paid within one year, and 
deducting the amount of sinking funds available for the payment of the indebtedness 
included. The Secretary of the Treasury shall accept,, for the purpose of this act, 
securities herein described in such proportions as he may from time to time determine, 
and he may at any time require any such bank to deposit additional security or to 
substitute other securities of the kinds described above for securities already on 
deposit. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to obtain information 
with reference to the character and value of securities offered for deposit under the 
provisions of this section before their acceptance, and to obtain and furnish from time 
to time information to savings banks concerning such bonds as will be accepted as 
security. When consistent with the best interests of the several funds created by 
this act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall distribute the deposits herein provided 
for, as far as practicable, equitably among the different States and sections: Provided, 
That, if for any reason the Secretary; of the Treasury shall not deposit with savings 
banks all of said funds, then he shall invest the amount not so deposited in any of the 
securities of the kinds heretofore described. 

The moneys deducted from the salary, pay, or compensation of each officer or 
employee and the income derived therefrom shall be held and deposited or invested, 
as above described, by the Secretary of the Treasury until paid out as hereinafter 
provided. Any insufficiency of any of the funds hereby created to carry out the pro¬ 
visions of this act shall be made up out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise 
appropriated, but no deficiency shall be so supplied in the case of any person retired 
who is in receipt, either directly or indirectly, of an annual independent income 
equivalent to the sum of nine hundred dollar^ or more, or who is possessed or seized 
either in his own name or in the name of another for his benefit of property, real or 
personal, or both, of the value of fifteen thousand dollars or more, and any pension 
that a person retired may receive from the United States shall be applied to supply 
any such deficiency that may exist in his case. 

For the purpose of aiding the Secretary of the Treasury in depositing and investing 
the funds created by this act a board of investment is hereby created, composed of 
the Treasurer of the United States, the Comptroller of the Currency, and two per¬ 
sons to be designated by the President from among the officers and employees of the 
classified civil service. The members of the board of investment shall be sworn, 
and shall hold office until others are appointed and qualified in their stead, and 
upon request of the Secretary of the Treasury shall perform the duties hereby imposed 
without additional compensation. 


RETIREMENT AGE. 

Sec. 3. That the retirement age herein referred to shall be sixty years for group 
one, sixty-five years for group two, and seventy years for group three. And the 
President of the'United States shall designate the branches of the service included 

in each group. , . , . _ . . ,, , 

Sec. 4. That if thirty days before the arrival of an officer or employee at the age of 
retirement the head of the department or independent governmental establishment 


36 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


in which he is employed certifies to the Secretary of the Treasury that by reason of 
his efficiency and his willingness to remain in the service the continuance of such 
officer or employee therein would be advantageous to the public service, such officer 
or employee may be retained for a term not exceeding two years; and at the end of 
the two years he may by similar certification be continued for an additional term of 
two years, and so on. Upon the failure of the head of the department or independent 
governmental establishment to make the above-described certificate it shall be the 
duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to place such officers or employees upon the 
retired list in accordance with the provisions of this act: Provided , however , That after 
the first day of July, nineteen hundred and sixteen, no person shall be continued in 
the classified civil service beyond his age of retirement herein specified. 

Sec. 5. That if an officer or employee is retained in the classified civil service after 
reaching the retirement age, a deduction of ten per centum of his monthly salary, 
pay, or compensation, in addition to the deduction provided for in section one hereof, 
shall thereafter be made monthly while ha remains in said service, and the amount 
of such deduction shall be transferred and credited to the special fund created by 
section eight of this act. 

PAYMENT OF ANNUITY. 

Sec. 6. That upon being placed on the retired list, as herein provided, the officer 
or employee may withdraw his savings, with the increment of interest as herein pro¬ 
vided, under one of the following options, and, if option two is selected, receive in 
addition thereto such annuity, if any, as may be apportioned by the Secretary of the 
Treasury out of accumulations in excess of five per centum, guaranteed by the pro¬ 
visions of this act, and such apportionment by the Secretary of the Treasury shall be 
conclusive: 

Option I. In one lump sum. 

Option II. fn an annuity payable quarterly throughout life: Provided , That in the 
event of the death of the annuitant any part of the savings not withdrawn shall become 
a part of his estate, to be disposed of according to law: Provided further, however , That 
if the deceased leaves no heirs and no will disposing of such unused or unpaid balance 
of his accumulated savings, then and in that event such balance shall be transferred 
and credited to the special fund to carry out the provisions of section nine of this act. 
In determining at the death of the annuitant the unused or unpaid balance of his 
accumulated savings, no account shall be taken of any annuity to the officer or employee 
under section eleven of this act. 


WITHDRAWAL OF ANNUITY FUND. 


Sec. 7 . That upon absolute separation from the classified civil service prior to 
retirement age, and only upon such separation, the officer or employee may withdraw 
his savings with increment or interest in one lump sum: Provided , That in case such 
separation is voluntary and the officer or employee has been in such service less than 
six full years, he shall receive the total amount of the deductions made from his 
salary, pay, or compensation only, and the increment of interest thereon in all such 
cases shall be transferred and credited to the special fund to carry out the provisions 
of section nine of this act, and to such special fund there shall also be added all amounts 
withheld or stopped from the salary, pay, or compensation of all officers or employees 
to whom this act applies by reason of absence, whether such absence is authorized or 
not, and that the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to 
transfer at the close of each fiscal year to the credit of the special fund to carry out the 
provisions of section nine of this act all lapsed balances of all money appropriated 
from time to time on account of all salaries, pay, or compensation of all persons to 
whom this act applies. 

DISABILITY FUND. 


Wlth , th ® first da y of Jul y next following the passage of 
this act there shall be deducted and withheld from the monthly salary, pav, or com¬ 
pensation of every officer or employee originally entering or reentering the'service to 
whom this act applies an amount equal to. one-fifth of the monthly salary, pay, or com¬ 
pensation of such officer or employee during the first six months of employment ; and 
m the case of every promotion of any person to whom this act applies there shall be 

i e Si a An d ,ri 1 f h in ld fr0I ?i ? e - monthl y salary, pay, or compensation of such person 
an amount equal to the monthly increase m salary, pay, or compensation made by such 
promotion during the first three months from and after the date on which such pro- 

an ?I he am ™ nt8 8 ° deducted and withheld shall constitute a 
special fund to carry out the provisions of section nine of this act, which special fund 



RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 37 


3hall be deposited or invested in the same manner as provided for in section two of 
this act. 


DISABILITY RETIREMENT. 


Sec. 9. That beginning one year after the first day of July next following the passage 
of this act, any officer or employee from whose salary, pay, or compensation deductions 
are made under the terms ot this act as aforesaid, who, by reason of accident or illness 
incurred or contracted while in service, not due to vicious habits and without fault 
or delinquency on the part of the officer or employee, has become totally and perma¬ 
nently disabled may retire from active service prior to the age of retirement, and on 
certificate from the head of the executive department or independent governmental 
establishment in which employed to the Secretary of the Treasury, setting forth such 
' disability, and the approval of such certificate by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall 
receive an annual disability allowance, payable quarterly, equal to one and one-half 
per centum of his total salary, pay, or compensation during service prior to such retire¬ 
ment. This annual allowance shall be paid out of the fund created by deductions made 
in accordance with the provisions of this act from the salary, pay, or compensation of 
such officer or employee, together with the accumulated interest on such deductions, 
and if such individual savings are insufficient for the purpose, the deficiency, if any, 
shall be paid from the special fund created by section eight of this act: Provided, 
however, That unless prorated by the Secretary of the Treasury as hereinafter provided, 
the annual allowance for disability due to accident or illness contracted while in the 
service shall be not less than twenty per centum of the average annual salary, pay, or 
compensation of the disabled officer or employee prior to such retirement: And pro - 
\ vided further, That the allowance for disability due to illness shall be granted only 
after ten years’ continuous service, and only when the officer or employee either at 
the time of his entry into classified civil service or thereafter shall have been physi¬ 
cally examined and pronounced free from disability that would incapacitate such 
officer or employee from the performance of his official duties. In case of the death 
of an officer or employee while in the receipt of a disability allowance, the balance of 
: the amount to the credit of such deceased officer or employee under section two of 
this act shall become part of his estate to be disposed of according to law: Provided, 
That if the deceased leaves no heirs and no will disposing of such unused or unpaid 
balance of his accumulations, then and in that event such balance shall be trans¬ 
ferred and credited to the special fund to carry out the provisions of this section of 
this act. The disability allowance in the case of any officer or employee hereby 
provided for shall at airtimes be limited to the fund created by the deductions and 
withdrawals made from the salary, pay, or compensation of such officers or employees 
in accordance with the provisions of this act, and the special fund created and 
| described in this act, and if any valuation of the funds shows the liabilities of the 
I funds for allowances to be in excess of the resources of such funds, then the disability 
allowances shall be reduced pro rata and shall in no case exceed the resources of said 
funds: Provided, That any officer or employee accepting a disability allowance under 
I the provisions of this section shall be reinstated upon his recovery, and if such officer 
I or employee refuses or fails to avail himself of such reinstatement within thirty days 
from the receipt of notice of his reinstatement, his disability allowance under this 
1 section shall cease and terminate forthwith, when any unused or unpaid balance of 
: his accumulated savings shall be returned to him. Upon his reinstatement such disa¬ 
bility allowance shall likewise cease and terminate and such reinstated officer or 
employee shall be entitled to all the benefits provided by this act for originally 
appointed officers or employees from the date of such reinstatement, and shall be 
credited with any unused or unpaid balance of his accumulated savings. 

retirement on annuity for superannuation. 

Sec. 10. That beginning with the first day of July next following the passage of 
this act, every officer or employee designated by this act for retirement shall be 
entitled, on reaching the retirement age, or having already passed that age, to retire 
from the service under the provisions hereinbefore contained, and also, in addition to 
the annuity herein provided for by any contribution from his salary, pay, or compen¬ 
sation, to receive from the United States from any money then in the Treasury not 
otherwise appropriated, during the remainder of his life, an annuity equal to one and 
one-half per centum of his total salary, pay, or compensation during service prior to 
the date on which this act shall take effect; but in no case shall the combined annuity 
paid be less than seventy-five per centum of the average annual salary, pay, or com¬ 
pensation in cases in which such average salary, pay, or compensation is less than one 



38 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


thousand dollars per annum. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and 
directed to pay such annuity quarterly, upon proper certification of the retirement of 
such officer or employee by the head of the department or independent governmental 
establishment in which such officer or employee last served. Annuities from the 
United States for. the period of service prior to the passage of this act shall be payable 
only on condition that such officer or employee remains continuously in the service of 
the United States from the date of the passage of this act to the date on which the 
officer or employee reached the age of retirement. Any annuities payable by the 
United States on account of past or back services under the provisions of this section 
on a salary, pay, or compensation in excess of two thousand five hundred dollars per 
annum shall be based on an annual salary of two thousand five hundred and twenty 
dollars and the portion of any salary, pay, or compensation in excess of that amount 
shall not be considered in making deductions or in computing allowances under the 
provisions of this act. 

Sec. 11. That the period of service upon which the annuity to be paid by the United 
States is based in the case of an officer or employee who remains continuously in the 
service of the United States from the date of the passage of this act as provided in the 
last preceding section shall be computed from the date of the original employment, 
whether as a classified or unclassified employee, and shall include periods of service 
at different times and service in one or more departments, branches, or independent 
establishments of the Government embracing the Signal Corps prior to July first, 
eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and the general service in or under the War Depart¬ 
ment prior to May sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six. 

Sec. 12. That every person designated by this act for retirement who shall con¬ 
tinue in the classified civil service after the passage of this act, as well as every such 
person to whom this act applies who may hereafter accept a position or place therein, 
shall be deemed, by so continuing in service or by accepting a position or place therein, 
to consent and agree to the deductions provided for in this act, and shall receipt in 
full for the salary, pay, or compensation, which may be paid monthly or at anv other 
time; and such payment, after making the deductions provided for herein, shall be 
as full and complete a discharge and acquittance of all claims or demands whatsoever 
for services rendered by such person during the period covered by such payment, 
notwithstanding the provisions of sections one hundred and sixty-seven, one hundred 
and sixty-eight, and one hundred and sixty-nine of the Revised Statutes of the United 
States, or of any other law, rule, or regulation affecting the salary, pay, or compensa¬ 
tion of any person or persons employed in the classified civil service to whom this 
act applies, as if no such deductions had been made, all other laws heretofore enacted 
to the contrary notwithstanding. 

RETIREMENT STATISTICS. 

Sec. 13. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall prepare and keep all needful 
tables, records, and accounts required for carrying out the provisions of this act. 
The records to be kept shall include data showing the mortality experience of the 
officers or employees in. the various branches of the service and the rate of withdrawal 
from the classified service, and any other information that may be of value and may 
serve as a guide for future valuations and adjustments of the plan for the retirement 
of officers or employees. The Secretary of the Treasury shall make a detailed com¬ 
parative report annually to Congress showing all receipts and disbursements under the 
provisions of this act, together with the total number of persons receiving annuities 
and disability allowances and the amounts paid them. 

APPLICATION OP ACT. 

Sec. 14. That the provisions of this a<st shall apply to all persons entering the 
classified civil service, by appointment therein or otherwise, after the passage of 
this act, and to all persons in the classified civil service at the date of the passage of 
this act who shall, by written application to the Secretary of the Treasury within 
ninety days after the first day of July next following the passage of this act, elect to 
become subject to the provisions thereof, and it shall be the duty of the President to 
cause the provisions of this act to be notified to all officers and employees in the 
executive civil service: Provided , however , That any person who does not within the 
period of time stated herein so elect to become subject to the provisions of this act 
shall not be eligible for advancement in salary or for promotion to fill any vacancy 
caused immediately or remotely, directly or indirectly, by reason of the retirement of 
any officer or employee under the provisions of this act, and no person who is not 
subject to the provisions of this act shall be advanced in salary or promoted to fill 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


39 


any vacancy caused or created, immediately or remotely, directly or indirectly, by 
reason of the retirement of any person as hereinbefore provided. The words ‘ ‘ classified 
civil service ” as used in this act shall be considered to embrace all officers and employ¬ 
ees m the executive civil service of the United States as defined in the rules and 
regulations of the United States Civil Service Commission promulgated from time to 
time. 

EXEMPTION OF ANNUITIES. 

Sec. 15. That none of the moneys mentioned in this act shall be assignable either 
in law or equity nor shall such moneys or any part thereof be subject to execution or 
levy by attachment, garnishment, or other legal process. 

EXCEPTED POSITIONS. 

Sec. 16. That no person or persons serving in a position excepted from examination 
or registration as defined in the rules and regulations of the United States Civil Service 
Commission shall be included within the retirement provisions of this act by reason 
of the extension of the classified service to embrace such excepted positions unless 
such person or persons shall have previously served for at least one year in a position 
filled by competition. The President shall have power, in his discretion, to exclude 
from the operations of the retirement provisions of this act any group or groups of 
officers or employees whose tenure of office is intermittent or of uncertain duration. 

RECLASSIFICATION. 

Sec. 17. That the following schedule of grades and salaries, pay, and compensation 
for all officers and employees in the executive civil service of the United States below 
the grade of Cabinet officer and others appointed to exercise exclusive like execu¬ 
tive functions, with the exception of such officers and employees as are appointed by 
the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, under the Consti¬ 
tution, and such officers or employees as are specially excepted by the rules and 
regulations of the United States Civil Service Commission, is hereby adopted, and 
hereafter all estimates for salaries, pay, and compensation of all such officers and 
employees in the several grades described in said schedule shall be made in accord¬ 
ance with the rates named therein, so far as practicable, with the understanding 
that such estimates for salary, pay, and compensation in any case shall be made and 
computed to the nearest multiple of twelve that will be not less than the salary, pay, 
or compensation provided for such grade in the following schedule: Provided , That 
in any case in which the grades and salaries, pay, or compensation prescribed in said 
schedule shall be found to be inapplicable to any position, such position may be 
specifically estimated for, the officer making such estimate setting forth in detail for 
the information of Congress the reasons why the schedule is not applicable to such 
position and why exception should be made to the scheuule: Provided further , That 
in any case in which the salary, pay, or compensation of an officer or employee to 
whom this act applies is regulated by a law or rule passed or adopted as a concession 
to a trade regulation, or by the amount of work performed, commonly denominated 
as “piecework,” the provisions of this act shall be construed in connection with such 
prior law or rule, and shall govern such salary, pay, or compensation in so far only 
as the provisions of this act do not conflict with such prior law or rule. 

SCHEDULE. 

Administrative grade.— This grade shall include all officers and employees of the 
executive civil service of the Government occupying positions below the grade of 
cabinet officer and others appointed to exercise only like executive functions except 
those officers or employees occupying positions specifically excepted by the rules 
and regulations of the United States Civil Service Commission and except also those 
persons described in the other grades hereinafter mentioned. The salary, pay, or 
compensation of persons in the administrative grade shall be specifically estimated 
for: Provided , That such estimates shall be submitted to Congress in such manner as 
will insure as nearly as practicable like salary, pay or compensation for like duty. 

Supervisory grade.— This grade shall include all officers or employees, except 
those described in the preceding grade, who perform duty of a supervisory, executive 
or administrative character with salary, pay or compensation as follows: Chief clerk 
of executive department and Governmental establishment, four thousand and twenty 
dollars; chief clerks of bureaus authorized by law to be acting chiefs of bureaus and 
to sign official mail in the absence of the chiefs, three thousand dollars per annum; 


40 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


chief clerks of bureaus not designated by law to be acting chiefs of bureaus to sign 
official mail in the absence of the chiefs, two thousand seven hundred and sixty dollars; 
chiefs of divisions, two thousan .1 ~ix hundred and forty dollars; all other officers or 
employees who exercise only supervisory, executive or administrative duty, two thou¬ 
sand five hundred and twenty dollars: Provided , That the person permanently assigned 
to the duties of any position in any grade and actually performing all the duties apper¬ 
taining to such position, and no other person, shall receive the designation, salary, 
pay or compensation of such position. 

Clerical grades. —(I) Senior clerks: Employees who are assigned to and perform 
work largely supervisory, or requiring the highest order of clerical ability, involving 
much original thought, consideration and investigation. Salaries: Two thousand one 
hundred and sixty dollars, two thousand one hundred dollars, and two thousand and 
forty dollars. 

(II) Clerks: Employees who are assigned to and perform the work more or less 
routine, involving responsibility, special ability and original thought, consideration 
and investigation. Salaries: One thousand nine hundred and twenty dollars, one 
thousand eight hundred dollars, and one thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. 

(III) Junior clerks: Employees who are assigned to work of a routine character, 
requiring but little original thought or consideration, but requiring judgment, respon¬ 
sibility, and special skill. Salaries: One thousand five hundred and sixty dollars, 
one thousand four hundred and forty dollars, and one thousand three hundred and 
twenty dollars. 

(IV) Under clerks: Employees who are assigned to work of a simple and routine 
character, requiring care, accuracy, and skill. Salaries: One thousand two hundred 
dollars, one thousand and eighty dollars, and nine hundred and sixty dollars. 

Subclerical grades. —(I) Employees whose duties are not clerical, but require 
some special skill, or involve personal responsibility, such as messengers, assistant 
messengers, watchmen, elevator conductors, skilled laborers, janitors, etc. Salaries: 
Nine hundred dollars, eight hundred and forty dollars, and seven hundred and eighty 
dollars. 

(II) Employees engaged in rough and unskilled work, as laborers generally. Sal¬ 
aries: Seven hundred and thirty-two dollars, six hundred and ninety-six dollars, and 
six hundred and sixty dollars. 

(III) Employees who enter the service at an early age and are engaged in light 
work, as messenger boys. Salaries: Five hundred and four dollars, four hundred and 
thirty-two dollars, and three hundred and sixty dollars. 

(IV) Employees whose work occupies only a part of the time each day, as char¬ 
women and janitors. Salaries: Four hundred and twenty dollars, three hundred and 
sixty dollars, and three hundred dollars. 

Officers or employees engaged in professional, scientific, technical, or 

MECHANICAL DUTIES, AND ALL OTHER EMPLOYEES NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFICALLY PRO¬ 
VIDED for in this act.-— The number and variety of designations of such employees 
shall be as small as practicable, and the duties performed by them shall be confined 
within the lines indicated by their titles or for which they may have passed exami¬ 
nations. Their salary, pay, or compensation shall be assimilated as far as practicable 
to the rates stated in the foregoing schedule, and when they can not be so assimilated 
they shall be specifically estimated for, the officer making such estimate setting forth 
in detail for the information of Congress the reasons why the schedule is not appli¬ 
cable and why exceptions should be made to the schedule. 

ESTIMATES. 

Sec. 18. That the regular annual estimates made after the passage of this act for 
appropriations for the salary, pay, and compensation of the officers and employees of 
the executive civil service of the Government shall specifically state the number 
of such officers and employees deemed necessary in each grade, and subdivision of a 
grade for each bureau or office, for the proper dispatch of the work incident to said 
service, and in additon thereto such estimates shall specifically state the amount 
deemed necessary to provide for the advancement of officers and employees to the 
next higher rates of salary, pay or compensation within the respective subdivisions of 
each grade on the first day of July of each year, as hereinafter directed, and no moneys 
appropriated in accordance with such estimates shall be used for any purpose, in con¬ 
nection with the dispatch of the work incident to the executive civil service of the 
Government other than that specified in the estimates therefor. Any unexpended 
portion of all such appropriations shall be treated as lapsed balances of appropriations 
for salary, pay, or compensation. That appointments to positions in the administra¬ 
tive grade estimated for as herein provided shall be made from persons in the super- 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


41 


visory grade, and any person in thesupervisory grade, and no other, shall be deemed 
eligible for appointment to any position in the administrative grade of the executive 
civil service of the Government. Nor shall any money hereafter appropriated be 
paid to any person outside the executive civil service while performing duties per¬ 
taining to the civil service except the chief administrative officer of a bureau or office. 
That on the first day of July of every year those officers and employees of the clerical 
and subclerical grades who have shown a satisfactory degree of efficiency in their work 
shall each be advanced to the next higher rate of salary, pay, or compensation within 
the subdivision of the grade in which such officer or employee shall have been serving 
for one year or more without promotion: Provided , That nothing herein contained 
shall prohibit the promotion or reduction of officers or employees at any time in 
accordance with the provisions of this act. 

BOARD OF ESTIMATES. 

Sec. 19. With a view to carrying out the provisions of this act as far as it-relates to 
the classification of the salary, pay, or compensation of the officers and employees of 
the executive civil service of the Government, and to the end that positions in the 
various grades shall be apportioned and distributed among the several executive 
departments and independent governmental establishments in a manner as nearly 
equitable as practicable, there is hereby created a board of estimates, to which board 
shall be submitted all estimates for salary, pay, or compensation of such officers and 
employees, and which board shall have plenary power and authority to make such 
alterations and changes in the estimates as may be deemed necessary by it to secure 
an equitable distribution of the several grades among the officers and employees of 
the several executive departments and independent governmental establishments. 
This board shall consist of one representative from each executive department and 
independent governmental establishment, to be designated by the head official in 
the respective department or governmental establishment so represented. The 
board shall perform its duties in conjunction with the Secretary of the Treasury, who 
shall be ex officio a member of such board and chairman thereof. The members of 
this board shall perform the duties herein prescribed without additional compensa¬ 
tion therefor: Provided , That any changes or alterations in the estimates for salary, 
pay, or compensation submitted by the chief official of any department or govern¬ 
mental establishment made by the board of estimates shall be specifically described 
in transmitting estimates to Congress and shall contain a full and detailed statement 
of the reasons for making such changes or alterations in the original estimates, and 
that in forwarding said estimates to Congress the board shall prepare and submit 
therewith a summarized statement showing the aggregate number of the officers and 
employees, with their salary, pay, or compensation in each grade and subdivision of 
a grade for which estimates are made. 

EFFICIENCY BOARD. 

Sec. 20. That there is hereby created in each bureau and office of each department 
and independent governmental establishment an efficiency board for the purpose of 
determining and recording the efficiency of each officer and employee of the execu¬ 
tive civil service in such department and independent governmental establishment 
in the clerical and subclerical grades and all the officers and employees occupying 
positions assimilated to positions in the clerical and subclerical grades. Each effi¬ 
ciency board shall consist of the chief or principal clerk of the bureau or office and all 
other persons of the supervisory grade in any bureau or office, and in case there are 
not four persons of the supervisory grade in any bureau or office, the efficiency board 
therein shall consist of the chief or principal clerk, the person or persons in the super¬ 
visory grades, if any, and a number of persons in the highest subdivision of the cler¬ 
ical grade therein sufficient to constitute a board of five persons. The persons selected 
from" the clerical grade as a part of any efficiency board shall be designated by the 
other members of the board. That if there be a bureau or office in which the number 
of officers or employees of the requisite grades is insufficient for the formation of an 
efficiency board as herein prescribed, an efficiency board therefor shall be designated 
by the head of the executive department or independent governmental establish¬ 
ment. On the first day of January and the first day of July in each year each effi¬ 
ciency board shall prepare a list of officers and employees wffiose efficiency is to bfe 
so determined, which list shall constitute a record whereon shall be shown in numerical 
order the relative efficiency of each person in each grade, and which list shall be 
approved by a majority of the efficiency board. 

In determining and recording efficiency all efficiency boards shall employ a uniform 
system to be approved by the United States Civil Service Commission based upon the 


42 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 

elements, attendance, ability, adaptability, habits, and application. The United 
States Civil Service Commission shall define what shall be embraced in these ele¬ 
ments, but the relative efficiency must be determined by the exhibition of the poses- 
sion of those elements in performance of official duty from day to day and not as the 
result of a set or written examination. The persons of the clerical grade on any 
efficiency board shall take rank on the efficiency list prepared by that board pre¬ 
ceding that of any other person thereon, and they shall be graded on the efficiency 
list in accordance with their rank in the subdivision of the clerical grade, and if more 
than one of them are in the same subdivision of the clerical grade, their names shall 
be entered on the efficiency list in the order in which they entered the executive 
civil service of the Government. All promotions in any department, bureau, or 
independent governmental establishment from any grade below the supervisory grade, 
or from any subdivision thereof, shall be made in accordance with the efficiency lists, 
and in the order in which the officers and employees are graded therein, and not 
otherwise: Provided , That the efficiency lists prepared as herein prescribed shall be 
subject to' the approval or disapproval of the head of the bureau or office concerned 
and of the department or independent governmental establishment in which such 
lists are prepared, and in case of disagreement between the head of a department 
or independent governmental establishment and the efficiency board with respect 
to the efficiency list, the subject of disagreement shall be referred to the United 
States Civil Service Commission, whose decision shall be final. _ Any officer or 
employee who feels that the list prepared by the efficiency board is not correct in 
any particular and is unable to secure an amendment thereof by the board in that 
particular shall have the right of appeal in writing to the head of the executive 
department or independent governmental establishment, who shall consider and 
decide the question involved, and should his decision be adverse to the board and 
should the board still decline to make the desired correction, the matter shall be 
referred to the United States Civil Service Commission, whose decision shall be 
final. The semiannual efficiency reports in each bureau and office shall be posted 
where access to them can be had by all concerned. 

HOURS OF LABOR. 

Sec. 21. That on and after the passage of this act eight hours shall constitute a day’s 
labor for all officers and employees in the executive civil service of whatever grade 
or class or wherever employed, wffiich said eight hours shall include one hour for lunch¬ 
eon on each working day throughout the year: Provided , That hereafter each day or 
part of day that is declared by law in any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia 
to be a legal or public holiday shall be observed by that part of each executive depart¬ 
ment or independent governmental establishment located in such State, Territory, or 
the District of Columbia, and the transaction of public business shall be suspended 
therein except in case of emergency, when such suspension would be detrimental 
to the public interests. That the head of each executive department or independent 
governmental establishment who determines that the public interests demand that 
the department or independent governmental establishment of which he is the head 
shall be kept open for the transaction of public business on any legal or public holiday, 
shall state fully in his annual report the number of days in each fiscal year on which 
such public or legal holidays were not observed and the particular emergency or 
emergencies that rendered it detrimental to the public interests to suspend public 
business on the day or days involved: Provided , further , That in all cases whenever 
and wherever any office, branch, portion or part in or under any executive depart¬ 
ment or independent governmental establishment shall be closed to the transaction 
of public business by direction of the head of such executive department or indepen¬ 
dent governmental establishment upon any day, due to the observance of any legal 
or public holiday, the officers or employees therein shall receive their full salary, pay, 
or compensation for such day. 

The heads of the several executive departments and independent governmental 
establishments may, by special orders, when demanded by the public interests, 
further extend from time to time the hours of labor of any officer or employee in or 
under their respective executive departments or independent governmental estab¬ 
lishments beyond the hours fixed by the provisions of this act as a working day: 
Provided , hoivever, That in all such cases of the extension of the hours of labor of any 
officer or employee the actual time shall be kept of each officer or employee so employed 
in excess of the eight hours a day prescribed m this act as constituting a working day, 
and such officer or employee shall be paid for actual overtime at his or her existing 
rate of salary, pay, or compensation at the time of such employment, and the com¬ 
pensation for such extra time shall be computed and paid upon an hourly basis for 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


43 


each full hour or major fraction thereof during .such period of employment, and all 
such extra salary, pay, or compensation for such overtime shall be paid out of any 
moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

A detailed statement showing the amount disbursed on account of all such extra 
or additional salary, pay, or compensation, and the names of the officers or employees 
to whom paid and the executive departments and independent governmental 
establishments in which employed, shall be annually prepared by the head of the 
executive department or independent governmental establishment and furnished to 
the board of estimates and transmitted by the Secretary of the Treasury with the 
regular yearly estimates to Congress, which statement shall contain a full report from 
the head of the executive department or independent governmental establishment 
of the reasons why such extension of the regular hours of labor are deemed necessary. 

LEAVES OF ABSENCE. 

Sec. 22. The head of any executive department or independent governmental 
establishment may grant to each officer or employee therein wherever employed, 
thirty days’ annual leave with salary, pay, or compensation in each calendar year: 
Provided, however , That in computing all such leave, Sundays and all days and parts 
of days declared by any law or by Executive orders to be public holidays, shall be 
expressly excluded from all such annual leaves so granted: And provided further, That 
where some member of the immediate family of such officer or employee is afflicted 
with a contagious disease and requires the care and attendance of such officer or 
employee, or when the presence of such officer or employee in the office or bureau 
where employed would jeopardize the health of fellow officers and employees, and 
upon a certificate, to be approved by the head of the executive department or inde¬ 
pendent governmental establishment, of a regularly licensed physician or surgeon, 
and in exceptional and meritorious cases, where such officer or employee is personally 
ill and unable to attend to his or her official duties, and where to limit the annual 
leave to thirty days in any one calendar year would work peculiar hardship, such 
annual leave may be extended, in the discretion of the head of the executive depart¬ 
ment or independent governmental establishment where such officer or employee is 
employed, with salary, pay, or compensation, for a period not exceeding thirty days 
in any one case or in any one calendar year: Provided also, That in computing all 
extensions of annual leaves on account of contagious diseases in the family or on account 
of personal illness, all Sundays, and all days and parts of days declared to be public 
holidays by any act of Congress or Executive orders shall be included in and con¬ 
sidered as an integral part of all such extensions of annual leaves. That hereafter all 
annual leaves and extensions of annual leaves on account of contagious diseases in the 
family, or personal illness or otherwise, shall be granted in accordance with regulations 
promulgated from time to time by the President, and shall be uniformly applied in all 
executive departments and independent governmental establishments. 

REGULATIONS GOVERNING ADMISSIONS, CHANGES, AND DISMISSALS. 

Sec. 23. That the President b authorized to prescribe such regulations for the 
admission of persons into the executive civil service of the United States as may best 
promote the efficiency thereof and ascertain the fitness of each candidate in respect 
to age, health, character, knowledge, and ability for the branch of the service into 
which he seeks to enter: and for this purpose he may employ suitable persons to con¬ 
duct such inquiries and may prescribe their duties and establish regulations for the 
conduct of persons who may receive appointments in the executive civil service: 
Provided, That persons in the executive civil service shall not be restricted in their 
rights or freedom of speech in the discussion of public questions, or in the right to 
criticize the conduct and administration of the service in which they are engaged, 
or to make suggestions in regard thereto, if such criticisms or suggestions are reduced 
to writing and filed with the head of the department, or to present any grievances to 
Congress, or to any Senator or Representative in Congress, if the same has been sub¬ 
mitted in writing to the head of the department against which the complaint is made; 
and no person holding a position in the executive civil service shall be removed 
therefrom or be reduced in grade, salary, pay, or compensation therein because of 
any such criticism or suggestion or presentation of grievance, nor except for such cause 
as will promote the efficiency of the service and for reasons given in writing, and the 
person whese removal or reduction is sought shall have notice of the same, and of any 
charges preferred against him, and be furnished with a copy thereof,. and also be 
allowed a reasonable time for answering the same in writing with affidavits if desired; 
and copies of charges, notice of hearing, answer, reasons for removal or reduction, and 


■ 44 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES.. 


of the order of removal or reduction, shall be made a part of the records of the proper 
executive department or independent governmental establishment; and copies of such 
record shall be furnished the person affected, the United States Civil Service Com¬ 
mission also shall be furnished with copies of the same or the original thereof: Pro¬ 
vided, further, That if the answer of the officer or employee whose reduction or dismissal 
is proposed does not satisfy the head of the department or independent governmental 
establishment that the officer or employee should be retained in service, such officer 
or employee shall be so notified and thereupon given a reasonable time, to be fixed by 
the head of the department or independent governmental establishment, in which to 
appeal to the United States Civil Service Commission, whose decision in the matter 
shall be final; and no reduction, removal, or suspension in any such case shall become 
effective until the United States Civil Service Commission shall have notified the head 
of the department or independent governmental establishment of its findings in the 
case: Provided, also, That membership in any society, association, club, or other form 
of organization having for its objects, among other things, improvements in the con¬ 
dition of labor of its members, including hours of labor and compensation therefor and 
leave of absence, by any person or groups of persons in said executive civil service, 
or the presenting by any such person or groups of persons of any grievance or grievances 
to the Congress, shall not constitute or be a cause for reduction in grade, salary, pay, 
or compensation, or for removal of such person or groups of persons from said service. 

TRANSFERS. 

Sec. 24. That hereafter upon the application of any officer or employee who has 
served his probationary period in the executive civil service of the United States for 
a transfer from one executive department or independent governmental establishment 
to another executive department or independent governmental establishment such 
transfer shall be made if the application is approved by the head of each executive 
department or independent governmental establishment concerned and authorized 
by the United States Civil Service Commission; if the head of the executive depart¬ 
ment or independent governmental establishment to which transfer is sought approve, 
and the head of the executive department or independent governmental establishment 
from which transfer is sought disapprove the application, then the application, 
together with all pertinent facts relative to it, including the reasons for disapproval, 
shall be at once referred by the disapproving authority to the United States Civil 
Service Commission for its decision, which commission shall take into consideration 
the interests of both the Government and applicant for transfer, and the decision of 
the commission with respect to the transfer shall be final. 

CONJUGAL RELATIONS. 

Sec. 25. That hereafter no man and wife shall both be employed in the executive 
civil service of the United States: Provided, however, That this restriction shall not be 
construed so as to exclude from the service any persons employed therein and married 
prior to the date of the passage of this act. 

FRAUDS. 

Sec. 26. That any person who shall either by himself or in cooperation with one or 
more other persons deceive or unlawfully defeat or obstruct any person in respect to 
his or her right of examination, appointment, or promotion under any act of Congress 
or under any rule or regulation promulgated thereunder, or who shall knowingly 
falsely mark, grade, estimate, or report upon the examination or standing of any 
person within the provisions of this act, or aid in so doing, or who shall make any false 
representation concerning any examination or the standing of any emplovee or appli¬ 
cant for employment in the service of the United States, or who shall furnish infor¬ 
mation to any person for the purpose of unlawfully injuring the prospects or chances 
ot appointment, employment, or promotion of any person or employee of the United 
states shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall 
tor each such offense be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars, nor 
more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for not less than ten davs, nor 
more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 

OFFICE EXPENSES. 

. ® EC ’ V'• f° r the clerical and other services and all other expenses necessary 

m carrying out the provisions of this act during the fiscal years ending June thirtieth, 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


45 


nineteen hundred and thirteen, and nineteen hundred and fourteen, including 
salaries and rent in the city of Washington, there is hereby appropriated the sum 
of fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, out of any money 
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 


RULES AND REGULATIONS. 

Sec. 28. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to 
perform and cause to be performed any and all acts and to make such rules and regu¬ 
lations as may be necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying the retirement 
provisions of this act into full force and effect, and the heads of the other executive 
departments and independent governmental establishments are likewise authorized 
and directed to perform or cause to be performed any and all acts and to make such 
rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying into 
like force and effect the other provisions of this act. 

MUTUAL BONDING OP EMPLOYEES. 

Sec. 29. A division to be known as the fidelity division is hereby created as a part 
of the office of the Secret ary of the Treasury, and there is appropriated the sum of twenty- 
five thousand dollars for the employment of a chief and other employees, and for all 
other necessary expenses of such division, the salaries for such chief and other 
employees to be fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with the fore¬ 
going schedule of salaries and the amount hereby appropriated to continue available 
during the fiscal year nineteen hundred and thirteen. 

The said fidelity division, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall 
hereafter have full charge of all matters pertaining to the bonding of all officers, 
employees, and agents of the Government, and of the fidelity fund herein provided 
for, and the custody of the bonds of all such officers, employees, and agents. 

From and after the first day of July next following the passage of this act every 
officer, employee, and agent of the Government who is now or may hereafter be 
required by any law, rule, regulation, or executive order to give bond shall at his 
option give such bond either with good and sufficient security or, upon contributing 
to the fidelity fund the premium or premiums herein authorized, give such bond 
without sureties, and all such bonds shall run to the "United States whether given with 
or without sureties as above prescribed: Provided, That this section shall not apply 
to what are commonly known as contract or court bonds. 

The Secretary of the Treasury shall classify all bonded officers, employees, and 
agents of the Government, and the premium rates per thousand of penalty for the 
various classes shall be established by him after due consideration of the aggregate 
penalties of bonds given by each of such classes between the first day of January, 
eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and the thirty-first day of December next pre¬ 
ceding the promulgation of such rates, and the aggregate losses incurred on such bonds 
during the same period, but in the aggregate the average annual premium per thousand 
of penalty shall be equal to not less than one hundred and seventy-five per centum of 
the average annual loss incurred per thousand of penalty upon the bonds of all officers, 
employees, and agents of the Government between the first day of January, eighteen 
hundred and ninety-five, and the thirty-first of December next preceding the pro¬ 
mulgation of such rates: Provided further , That premium rates for officers, employees, 
and agents of the Post Office Department and the postal service may be based on the 
penalties of the bonds of such officers, employees, and agents and the losses incurred 
under such bonds, as herein provided, between the first day of January, nineteen 
hundred and five, and the thirty-first day of December next preceding the promul¬ 
gation of such rates: And provided further , That should the money to the credit of 
the fidelity fund, less any outstanding claims, become equal to one per centum of the 
total penalties of all the bonds of those contributing to said fund, the rates may be 
lowered to such an extent as in the judgment of the Secretary of the Treasury will 
suffice to meet the average yearly losses and all expenses of the fidelity division. 

The fidelity division shall pay all moneys received for the fidelity fund to the 
Treasurer of the United States, and all such payments shall be covered into the 
Treasury by him as miscellaneous receipts, but credited on the books of the Treasury 
to said fidelity fund. 

Whenever the Secretary of the Treasury shall finally determine that any sum is due 
the United States upon any such bond w ithout sureties, such sum shall at once be 
charged or debited to said fidelity fund, but such charge or debit shall not operate 
to release the officer, employee, or agent, but he shall be liable as fully on his bond 
and otherwise as if no such charge or debit had been made; and any money that may 


46 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


thereafter be recovered from such officer, employee, or agent, or from anyone for him, 
shall be covered into the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts and credited to the 
fidelity fund. All moneys paid into the Treasury to the credit of the fidelity fund 
shall be the property of the United States for the purpose above specified, and shall 
be used like other moneys belonging to the Government, but strict account shall be 
kept of the amount due said fund. All expenses of the said fidelity division, includ¬ 
ing salaries therein, shall be annually estimated and appropriated for as hereinbefore 
prescribed, but after July first, nineteen hundred and thirteen, all sums so expended 
shall be charged or debited to said fidelity fund. 

That from and after the first day of July, nineteen and twelve, every officer, em¬ 
ployee, or agent of the Government receiving, disbursing, or otherwise handling 
moneys belonging to the United States, or moneys in the custody of the United States, 
amounting to one thousand dollars or more per annum, shall give bond to the United 
States for the faithful performance of his duty, and unless otherwise provided by law 
the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe the amount of the penalties of such 
bonds. The Secretary of the Treasury shall make all necessary rules and regulations 
to carry out the provisions of this section and may utilize and employ for such pur¬ 
pose the services of such officers, clerks, and other employees of the Treasury Depart¬ 
ment as he may direct. 

The Secretary of the Treasury shall, in his annual report to Congress, submit a 
detailed statement of the credits to said fidelity fund and of all charges or debits 
against the same for the preceding fiscal year, and the number and aggregate penal¬ 
ties of all bonds without sureties executed hereunder during such preceding fiscal 
year.| 

REPEALING SECTION. 

That all laws or parts of laws, and all acts or parts of acts, including all laws, parts 
of laws, acts and parts of acts, affecting the official status, appointment, tenure of 
office, or removal from office of all officers and employees in the executive civil service 
included in the provisions of this act, in any wise inconsistent with or in conflict 
with the provisions and purposes of this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed. 

I also wish to supplement my remarks by a paper entitled “The 
United States Civil Service: What .It Is, and What It Stands For,” 
illustrated by two bottles of milk under the caption of “ Uncle Sam’s 
civil service milk,” showing the number of persons examined, passed, 
failed, and appointed with respect to purely clerical and purely tech¬ 
nical positions during the year of 1909. An examination of the data 
shows that in the purely clerical positions 58 per cent of those exam¬ 
ined failed, while only 14 per cent of the 42 per cent who passed were 
selected for appointment. 

In the case of the purely technical positions 68.60 per cent failed 
and of those who passed only 13 per cent were selected. 

These illustrations show the severity of the examinations held and 
the high order of intelligence required to qualify thereunder, and 
which would seem to justify a reclassification and a regrading of sala¬ 
ries with a view to attracting to the service men and women possessed 
of the highest mental attainments. 

Exhibit B. 

The United States Civil Service: What It Is, and What It Stands For. 

UNCLE SAM’s CIVIL-SERVICE MILK . 1 

When a man wants to write a book he is confronted by two very important factors* 
One is his theme or purpose for wanting to write the book, and the other is his plan 
or method by which to sustain his purpose. Now, I am not going to write a book but I 
am going to give you just a plain talk. I have a purpose for doing so and I believe mv 
plan will satisfy your expectation. Let me, then, say in the very beginning 0 f mv 
talk that my purpose is to set ourselves right in the eyes of the public in general and 


i This paper was originally prepared for blackboard illustration. 






RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 47 


business men especially, and to enlighten and educate you and the public on the 
workings and the beneficial results of applied civil service in conducting the vast 
and complex business of the Federal Government. More particularly, however, will 
I. speak of the scope of the law as it is applied to the educational class of the classified 
civil service.. Nevertheless, I wish to remind you of the fact that the law in its scope 
and application covers equally. well the noneducational class of the civil service 
down to, but not including the common laborers. 



Examinations for Purely Clerical Positions 
Number of applicants examined In 1909 for positions os 
Stenographers . type writers , BooK-Keeper» 

ClerKs 7566 

Number oo«ed the examination 5099 or 4fc*/» 

Number appointed to positions 1059 or 14% 

Number failed to pass 4A69or567« 


Examinations for Purely TecHnical Positions 
Number of oppliconts examined in 1909 for positions as 
Civil engineers Droftsmen Computers , Electricians 
Superintendents ftJl7 

Number thot passed the examination 7QO or 51.40% 

Number appointed to positions 344 or 13-70 % 

Number failed to poss 178.7 or 66 60 V# 


Now, you wonder as you look at the blackboard why I have used such a common¬ 
place illustration, and the wonder of wonders in your mind is the strange title that 
waves like a banner over it as you read: “Uncle Sam’s civil-service milk.” I will 
not hold you in suspense. Those of you who are old enough will remember the old 
saying “pap,” that passed from mouth to mouth years ago. It had a peculiar signifi¬ 
cance and an unsavory definition before the days of civil service. The worst that 
could be said of it was only too true. But after the civil-service law was passed and 
its application made general in 1896 there began a new era. Now, a great many people, 
some that ought to know better, still use the word “pap” when they speak about civil 
service. Then, too, there are many besides these that do not know any better, and 
it is to these people I desire to address myself, because among them are those who 
wish to be informed. 

Let us now take a somewhat closer look at the blackboard and notice the homely, 
everyday, commonplace illustration—the two milk bottles. In using these my pur¬ 
pose is to metamorphize pap of the unsavory, equivocal meaning into something 
unmistakably known to everybody down to the kindergarten class. Here I propose 
to begin the campaign of education on the science of applied civil service in theory 
and practice, as we have it to-day, what it is, and what it stands for. 

Now everybody knows what milk is, and of course everybody likes good milk. I 
am sure on this point there is no division of opinion in this audience. Well, then, these 
two bottles contain better milk than any of you have ever tasted. For good reasons I 
am compelled to make this statement and I am going to sustain it by figures that will 
make it an indisputable fact. The report of the United States Civil Service Commis¬ 
sion shows that during the year 1909, 7,368 persons wanted some of the milk in the 
bottle on the left; and no less than 2,517 persons tried to get some of that which is 
represented by the bottle on the right. . Or, in other words, 9,885 good, strong, healthy 
persons in very good standing, vouched for by the best of the people in the United 
States as to their moral character and known abilities, wanted some of Uncle Sam’s 
















48 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


delicious, pure, rich milk. Now you do not blame them for that, do you? We have 
a right to the very best the land affords, but of course we have no right to steal it. 
Uncle Sam and everybody here are agreed on these two points. 

I must not overlook to tell you at this juncture that these two bottles represent only 
certain classes of persons who went up against the examinations. There were oyer 
70,000 persons examined during the year 1909, covering every departmental require¬ 
ment down to but not including common laborers. It is my purpose to deal only with 
those positions that run parallel with ordinary business enterprises, corporation inter¬ 
ests, etc., for executive and ordinary office duties such as are necessary to conduct the 
ordinary business of any concern anywhere. 

Now, dear Uncle Sam, who, as you all know, lives in Washington, says yes, you 
may have some of this milk, provided you have a big pile of money, live around the 
corner in the 10-room bungalow, go a-spinning around town, are a member of this or 
that club or a descendant of this or that prominent man or woman, and many more such 
fanciful things that make a difference and a distinction in some people’s eyes but 
never in Uncle Sam’s. No, you are never asked any such stuff, and everybody’s 
feet are on the same level. No such questions are on the application blanks. But 
he does want to know if you are healthy and strong, strong in body and mind, and of 
good moral character, and if the doctor (see Appendix A) and those who vouch for 
you say yes, and you take an oath as to the truth of your written answers to the ques¬ 
tions on your application, you just go right in with the rest into the place where Uncle 
Sam does not even ask the name of your tailor, for he “looketh not upon the appear¬ 
ance of men.” And once within you will find that “there is no respect of persons” 


connected with your examinations. In fact, for the time being you are known only 
by number, which is assigned to you and which you place on your examination 


papers. 


13 

If never before you had an opportunity to prove that —- has no terror for 

Zo 


you, here is the chance of your life. For there is a possibility that for the time being 
you may be known by “thirteen over twenty-three,” as they call it, and the only 
thing that is likely to differentiate you from all the rest of the crowd is how well 
you pass, and between the borders of passing at all and passing high lie your chances 
of getting some of Uncle Sam’s nice rich milk. I shall demonstrate this assertion a 
little more clearly later on. I was almost going to say Uncle Sam’s pap, as some would 
have it. But there are only a few people left that use that word nowadays, and there 
is really a reason for it. They do not know any better. They have not kept up with 
the times—forgetting that they live in glass houses, sometimes try to amuse themselves 
with flinging sticks and stones at us. I have never yet seen a tree having fine pecans 
on it that did not have lots of sticks under it. But I have no intention of retaliating 
in kind. It is my purpose to educate them. If any of them are here in this audience 
they will have no excuse for not knowing any better when I have finished. The 
days of the spoils system are gone never to return, and it would be well for everybody 
to remember it. There is but one door to a position in the educational class of the 
civil service, and that is the door of mental examination. 

We will once more take a look at the two milk bottles in the illustration on the black¬ 
board. You notice they are brim full. The one on the left represents some of those 
persons who took Uncle Sam’s civil-service examinations in the educational class 
for what are termed clerical positions, known in commercial life as typewriters, stenog¬ 
raphers, bookkeepers, cashiers, receiving and shipping clerks, purchasing clerks, 
stock and warehouse men, and custodians of seals, record and filing clerks, accountants 
and accounts clerks, secretaries, and men in all sorts of clerical positions. And, the 
bottle on the right represents some of those who took the more difficult examinations 
of a technical character, such as civil, mechanical and electrical engineers; junior 
engineers, superintendents, draftsmen, computers, inspectors, scientific assistants, etc. 
Both kinds of examinations are necessarily thorough for the several positions and are 
getting somewhat stiff as we advance. There is a reason for it. Uncle Sam wants and 
must have the best for the respective positions, to carry on the vast business of the 
Government in all its minute and complex details, with clock-work precision and 
exactness. Brain and brawn must characterize those that fill the ranks of the United 
States civil-service corps. No other uniform is required. 

Now, then, this army that took the civil-service examinations during the year 1909, 
nearly 10,000 strong, came from all parts of the United States; from every nook and 
corner, and from all walks in life; and from all sorts of business enterprises—shops, 
mills, factories, stores, offices, etc.—many with high-school, college, and university 
training and education. They are those who have the moral courage and confidence 
in their ability to take the examinations, and you know that that is the stuff that 
counts for a lot. You know, now, when you hear a chap say all kinds of hard things 
against the civil service, that the right sort of stuff is missing in him. Many, too, 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


49 


were educated in foreign countries, who came over here, it is true, bringing their 
training and education with them, but of course they had to become citizens of this 
dear land of ours first, or else they can not enter the classified civil service of the 
United States at all. 

I am now going to invite your attention to some figures on the blackboard, and for 
convenience I have used round sums, as they are easier to remember. Here we have 
then [place the following on the blackboard]: 


The number of persons that had the courage to go up for examinations is. 10,000 

Here is the number that passed. 3 ? 900 

And here is the number that failed. 6,100 


These 6,100, then, who failed to pass had to go back where they came from. Too bad, 
is it not? Yes; they had to go back to plain everyday cow’s milk; to the desks and 
stools and chairs they left to take their places again in the maelstrom of human exist¬ 
ence. Go back to the shop, the mill, the factory, the store, the offices, and I should not 
be at all surprised if some were found in railroad offices, from whence so many sticks are 
flung at us. Uncle Sam, big-hearted though he is, has no use for them. He wants the 
biggest and the best. “ Fell through the sieve, ” as they say at Heidelberg; too small 
for the mesh. A rather rural, hayseed sort of an illustration you say, but it has a tell¬ 
tale meaning. _ It represents a farmer sifting wheat for sowing. Only the big grains 
of wheat remain in that particular kind of a sieve. All the small, undersized, unde¬ 
sirable kernels of wheat fall through. Good enough for chicken feed, but not for 
I sowing. He wants the best, hence the metaphor “fell through the sieve.” 

But Uncle Sam says kindly to all who failed: “ If you don’t succeed at first, try, try 
again,” and so you may. 

I believe I have succeeded in making clear and prominent this one fact that the 
educational class of the civil service has in it a somewhat exclusive set. Before I 
finish my talk I am going to prove it to you by facts and figures. 

From the very beginning the civil-service law has put forth its strong right arm to 
lay hold upon persons with the capacity and ability to think and to do things. There 
is no equivocation on that point. No matter, also, how high you pass, your appoint¬ 
ment to a position is for six months only on probation, and if you measure up to require¬ 
ments you may remain in your position, but only as long as you make good and act 
like a man; or in other words, the tenure of your position is determined by the degree 
of your efficiency. 

I believe I have succeeded to your satisfaction in tearing off that old tag, string and 
all, and disabused your minds of the “pap ” idea in connection with the United States 
civil service of to-day. Your thinking will be changed from, now on, because you 
know better. Thinking and knowing are the two great factors in the process of 
evolution. 

I will now proceed to demonstrate and prove what I asserted a little while ago: That 
Uncle Sam must and will have the best and nothing else will do. I am going to let 
the cat out of the bag. I want you to see that every person entering the educational 
class of the civil service is not a mere cog in the wheel of Uncle Sam’s machinery that 
runs the Government, as some would have you believe. I also want you to understand 
that the Civil Service Commission sees to it that the marks of intelligence and ability 
are on your forehead. You at once recognize the new label. It is as different from 
| the old tag that was torn off long ago as white is from black. 

But I must not overlook another strong link in the chain that is stretched across the 
portal to guard the entrance into Uncle Sam’s civil service. The head of the depart¬ 
ment and the chief in charge of the bureau or office who needs your services have a 
> right to look over your examination papers before determining upon some one to fill 
: a vacancy or a new position. They make sure that the right man is selected for the 
right place. From those who are eligible the selection as a rule is made from the three 
that passed highest. I have no doubt that you are now convinced that the old spoils 
[ system is buried a thousand leagues under the sea. 

Now, to deepen the impression upon your mind I will go back once more to the 
illustration on the blackboard. Good, rich milk is bound to have some cream on top, 
and you will notice that our bottles in the illustration show two grand divisions: 
Those who failed to pass the examinations are represented by the larger portions in the 
two bottles. By the thin, watery, chalky-looking substance at the bottom, which 
amounts as you see, in proportion, to 58 per cent in the bottle on the left, and to 68 
per cent in the one on the right. 

Now you probably know that the longer milk stands the thicker and richer the 
cream on top. Please notice the line of separation in each bottle. It is very plain. 
In the examinations it is known by the term “nix,” and it always has the minus sign, 

563—11-4 








50 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


and means below 70 per cent. Now, from that line on up we have the second grand 
■division. This is the cream which represents those who passed the civil-service 
examinations. You will notice the shade becomes deeper until we reach Uncle Sam’s 
portion on top, which is called cr&me de la creme. This is the best. There is nothing 
better; make your comparison any way you please. Now, my friends, make a mental 
note of what I say as I proceed to show you how Uncle Sam helps himself to the portion 
reserved for his own private use. I promised to let you into the secret, so here it goes. 

Please take a good look again at the two bottles in the illustration. Notice that the 
cream is marked 42 per cent in the bottle on the left, representing those who passed for 
■ clerical positions; and 31 per cent in the other, representing those who passed for 
technical positions. These two percentages represent then, the 3,900 persons who 
successfully passed the examinations from 70 per cent all the way up to the top, 100 
per cent. It appears, however, that Uncle Sam helped himself only to a few spoonfuls 
from the very top of each bottle. Just 14 per cent of the 42 per cent from one bottle, 
and 13 per cent of the 31 per cent of the other; or, in other words, of the 3,900 persons 
who passed he selected 1,400 only, to fill places in the departments in Washington and 
.the various Government offices throughout the United States. 

Now I do not wish to convey to you the idea that in the method of selection for 
appointment to the classified civil service that the Government has adopted a new 
plan. Quite the reverse. I wish only to emphasize the fact that by reason of the 
civil-service law the principle that governs in other directions has made possible its 
extension and application to nearly all appointments for the civil-service corps of the 
United States. I will illustrate what I mean. The United States Military Academy 
at West Point, which you well know furnishes the officers for the United States Army, 
and every young man to enter the academy must pass an entrance examination first. 
You will find that up to recently, but five of the graduates, the number is now ten, who 
have reached a certain high standing are admitted to the Engineer Corps, United States 
Army. The officers in this corps who have reached international eminence, down to 
Col. Goethals, who is now building the Panama Canal, are too numerous to mention. 
They are all well known to the general public. Further, those cadets who do not reach 
a certain standing are not permitted to graduate at all. Do you see the parallel of the 
controlling principle of the Government that leaves its impress upon the military and 
the civil service? 

But now you are ready to tell me that a law has just passed that admits civilian 
engineers to the ranks of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army. I realize it. 
Anyone that can pass the mental and physical examinations and has all other quali¬ 
fications necessary to enter its ranks may be assured of a warm welcome, no matter 
from what institution of learning he has received a diploma. 

However, it is this governing principle which has laid its iron grip upon some of 
the Government service of to-day, and which is producing such results that will 
elevate the civil branch of Government service eventually to the dignity of a pro¬ 
fession. Especially will this be true if provision is made for immediate retirement 
of superannuated employees; and for the retirement of civil-service employees at 
:a certain age, and for pay commensurate with services and the degree of efficiency 
of each employee. Such a provision will bring within its ranks the best in skill, 
talent, and training that the country affords, and the United States civil-service 
corps will eventually constitute a body of persons which for effective service will 
have no equal in the world. Even West Point would furnish its quota from those 
who were not permitted to graduate for the military branch, say after a two or three 
years’ course. They would then enter the civil-service corps. The cost of their 
•education is considerable, and this expense is entirely lost to the Government, because 
there is no adequate provision made to absorb their service. But, of course, a West 
Pointer, though he fails to pass, has no difficulty to find remunerative employment 
■far beyond any salary the civil service holds out to him at the present time. 

While I am making predictions, let me remind you of what one of our prominent 
•Congressmen recently said, according to public print: “As for the efficiency of the 
Government employees, I know it to be a fact that should the whole Cabinet take 
a summer off and go to Europe the work would go on just the same. The clerks can 
run the Government. The President and his advisers may frame the policies, but 
the employees are the ones who make the wheels of Government go round.” These 
words were spoken in public by Representative Davis, of Minnesota. If this was 
an audience of civil-service employees, I would request that you rise to your feet 
and thus pay the highest tribute an American audience can pay to one of its dis¬ 
tinguished citizens for such unstinted praise. 

Now, in conclusion, permit me to remind you of just one feature of mv theme. I 
have not used the cuttle-fish method of clouding the facts or hiding behind ambigu¬ 
ous terms. I have given you facts and figures as I know them to be, and as they are 






RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


51 


on record. I have presented you certain facts—clean, clear-cut, fearless. I have 
used no harsh language against our enemies, though the provocation is ever present. 
I have made no odious comparisons between one class of employees and another, in 
and out of the Government service. I have presented to you solely the cause of the 
classified civil service as it is under the law. Those in the Government service who 
are outside the pale of civil-service law are an entirely different class of Government 
employees. Whether they do a lick of work for their salaries or not, does not concern 
us, who are in the civil service; that is a matter for the people and Congress to attend 
to. But we do object for anyone to mix us up, and cast sticks and stones at us when 
he really means some of the other fellows. 

Now, I ought to stop right here, but I beg the privilege of talking to you at some 
other time, because I wish to go down deep into the reflex influences upon and bene¬ 
fits to the business world of applied civil service in the United States. Now, in closing, 
I beg for sympathy for those who failed in their examination and who had to go back 
where they came from. Some to their old places to tell the man behind the 
desk some of the things “George could not do.” Yes; have sympathy for ‘ 

He is back in his place where every other fellow says, “Let George do it.’ 
better and a wiser man, and perhaps will do things a little more cheerfully than he 
did before he went up against it. I believe, too, he is now a greater man than he 
was before. He is likely to measure up to what is expected of him. His hallucina¬ 
tions and his “dead easy” and “soft-snap” ideas and big-pay notions and nothing to 
do, about which he has been dreaming for a year or so, have undergone a change. 
Some of his conceit has been worked off. The $125 job he wanted in Uncle Sam’s 
service, that would provide him with so many fancied luxuries and which he was 
so dead sure of, but missed, has made the difference in him. He has come to the 
conclusion that Uncle Sam wants $3,500 men for $1,500, and now, although he failed, 
I firmly believe, sooner or later, you will find him behind the mahogany desk in the 
back office getting his $3,500 a year, a thing impossible to him had he passed at the 
top and gone into Uncle Sam’s service; because, when a position commands such a 
salary, it is, as a rule, outside the civil service, and is seldom filled by a person in 
the civil service; filled usually by senatorial courtesy is the term used in such cases, 
I believe. But in the meantime have sympathy for him, I say, because he has been 
the victim of popular notions, whereby he was misled. The spoils system had its 
iron grip on the Federal offices. 

In times gone by every ward boss that could not make an honest living anywhere, 
and every lame duck had to be worked into “something easy, and big pay,” and no 
questions asked, they say. It may have been so for all I know.. But there is one 
thing I do know positively and that is, that it is not so now in this year of our Lord, 
1911. Moreover, I ask for sympathy for him who failed in his examination because 
now he is one of the wise men and a discoverer of many things—the principal one is 
that he knows that he does not know all, and perhaps from now on there will be a 
somewhat closer reciprocal and appreciative relation between himself and the man 
behind the mahogany desk. 

Now just one word more. I wish to express the hope that my efforts to put the 
civil-service employees in their lawful place, which by right belongs to them and 
which they have acquired through test of ability has not been in vain. It is their 
heritage. Their position and their standing have come to them through a power 
entirely their own. I believe that the thinking and fair-minded portion of the Ameri¬ 
can people will not be slow to recognize this fact. I trust also, that our excuse will 
gain for us soon general public favor; and that our friends have now received renewed 
encouragement to step forward in the good work in our behalf until each employee 
receives a salary commensurate with services performed, and that the incentive will 
ever be within us to make ourselves, as civil-service employees of the Government, 
worthy of their best efforts in our behalf. .. 

What is a Government clerk, anyway? “Why, that question is easy. It is a clerk 
in the service of the Federal Government. It is usually a man unless it is a woman.” 
That, my friends, used to be the brilliant and best answer that most people could give 
in the past. It never was, and of course is not now, a sufficient and.complete answer. 
The Government compresses the majority of occupants of the positions required to 
carry on its vast business in all its intricate and complex details, into one mold 
termed “ clerk. ’ ’ This, as a rule, does not impress the mind with high ideals.and much 
ability. The moment, however, he quits the Government service his abilities and 
worth are recognized when he emerges from his clerical chrysalis by which he was 
lost in the mass and engages in commercial, financial, and as is often the case in pro¬ 
fessional, pursuits; his liberation from the “only a clerk” is complete. This is the 
lesson of the 12,000 who resigned during the past year. He becomes a cashier, a 
paying teller, a credit man, a"bookkeeper, an expert accountant, a secretary, a pur¬ 
chasing agent, a manager, a sales manager, a vice president. We find him sitting 


mahogany 
‘George.” 
’ He is a 


52 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


as a director on various boards. He is now a business man. This is the epitome of the 
poorly paid civil-service clerk; and thousands of others who quit the service every 
year. The business men smile at the foolish and short-sighted policy of the Govern¬ 
ment—that puts the front door into the civil service just on a crack and guards it so 
zealously, but must leave the back door out of the service wide open because the 
Government’s short-sighted policy does not permit paying a salary commensurate 
with duties and responsibilities and services. It affords, therefore, a splendid source 
for business men to draw from for their wants. An ever-changing personnel demands 
that employees of long experience must train those who enter the broken ranks as 
raw material and who enter under present conditions to stay only till a better-paying 
position outside the service is secured. The prudent business man does not con¬ 
sider this a wise policy. 

From without the wall, then, of the civil service, from over the hills of success of 
those who have gone forth,comes echoing back the answer to the question: “What is 
a Government clerk?” 


Appendix A (part of Exhibit B). 

MEDICAL CERTIFICATE. 

This medical certificate is required of all applicants. 

N. B.—The examining physician is requested to read this certificate carefully 
before beginning the examination and to note applicant’s answers to questions 3 and 5a 
of the application. Applicants for the Railway Mail Service must be examined 
divested of their clothing. Applicants for positions in the Public Health and Marine- 
Hospital Service must be examined by physicians in that service. All entries upon 
this certificate must be made in ink. 

If erasures or corrections be made in answer to questions contained in “Medical 
certificate,” or in date of same, certification must be made on the margin by the phy¬ 
sician showing such corrections. All physical defects must be fully described oppo¬ 
site the question or under the last heading (24). “R,” right; “L,” left. Under head¬ 

ing 5 use terms poor, fair, average, good, or excellent. 

1. Exact weight, in ordinary clothing, without overcoat or hat. pounds. 

(The physician must himself weigh the applicant.) 

2. Exact height without boots or shoes.feet.inches. (The physician 

must himself measure the applicant.) 

3. Girth (waist at level of umbilicus).inches. 

4. Girth (thorax at level of fourth rib): At rest,.inches; at full inspiration, 

. inches; at full expiration,.inches. 

5. Degree of robustness,. 

6. Vision (test both eyes for both near and distant vision, using, if possible, Snellen’s 

test types): Is the applicant’s sight defective; if so, to what extent? . Is the 

applicant color blind? . Does the applicant wear glasses? . Should 

the applicant wear glasses? . 

7. Hearing: Ticking of watch, R. ear,.feet; L. ear,.feet. Ordinary 

conversation, R. ear,.feet; L. ear,.feet. 

8. Has the applicant any defect of speech? If so, describe it. 

9. Thorax (shape, depth, etc.). 

10. Nasal fossae,. 

11. Mouth and pharynx (teeth, tonsils, etc.). 

12. Has the applicant any curvature of spine? . If so, give extent and cause. 

13. Limbs (defects, deformity, varicose veins, ulcers, etc.). 

14. Is theTe evidence of disease, or of abnormal functions, of the cerebro-spinal or 

sympathetic nervous system? . 

15. Pulmonary sounds produced: (a) By auscultation,.; (6) By percussion, 

.; rales, if any,. 

16. Are there any indications of disease or of derangement of function of the organs 

of respiration or their appendages? Describe fully. 

17. Pulse : When sitting, beats per min.,.; character,. When standing, 

beats per min.,.; character,. After testing agility, beats per min.,.; 

character,. (Hop on one foot a distance of 12 feet.) Cardiac condition shown 

(murmurs, rhythm, etc.): (a) On palpation, . (6) On percussion, 

(c) on auscultation,. 

18. Has he been successfully vaccinated within the past five years? 

19. Are there any indications of disease of the heart or of blood vessels? ' Describe 

fully. 








































RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 53 

20. Are there evidences of disease of the digestive system or of any of the abdominal 

organs? Describe fully. 

21. Has the applicant rheumatism, gout, chronic catarrh of any organ, disease or 

defect of any of the organs of special sense, hernia, varicocele, sarcocele, hydrocele, 
hemorrhoids, fistula in ano, enlarged lymphatic glands or other tumor, any genito¬ 
urinary disease, or any cutaneous disease, or any evidence of having had venereal 
disease? . 

22. Has the applicant any predisposition, either hereditary or acquired, to any con¬ 

stitutional disease, or any tendency to disease or disability which is likely to unfit him 
for the performance of the work of the position which he seeks? . 

23. Are there indications that the applicant uses intoxicating beverages, tobacco, 

or narcotics in any form, and if so, to what extent? . 

24. Give here a supplemental and complete description of every abnormality, dis¬ 
ease, or physical defect, past or present: . 

This space to be filled in by the applicant in his own handwriting, in the presence 
of the physician. 

(Signature of applicant.). 

I certify that I have made a thorough examination of and personally weighed and 
measured the above-named applicant, that each and all of the above answers are in 
my own handwriting and are true, and that the applicant wrote his signature, just 
above, in my presence. 

(Signature of physician.) . 

Date..,19_ (P. O. address of physician.) . 

(Applicant will not fill the following blanks.)' 

Final certificate of naturalization of.(name of person naturalized) issued 

by the.court of./city).(State) on., 1...., was filed with 

this application by the applicant, and was found by me to be in due form in all 

respects. The certificate was returned to the applicant on., 19- 

(Initials.) . 

STATEMENT OF JOSEPH W. BUCK. 

Mr. Buck. If you will pardon me, Doctor, our time is very nearly 
up and I have a few words I would like to say. 

I entered the Government service July 14, 1898, by civil service 
examination, and was appointed to a first-grade clerkship in the 
office of the Auditor for the War Department and served there for 
10 years and 2 months, ending January 28, 1909, when I resigned, 
with 60 days’ leave, to prosecute this retirement measure. 

Mr. Dies. Wliat salary did you go in on and what salary did you 
come out with ? 

Mr. Buck. SI,200. I was promoted in 1899 to SI,400 and I was 
promoted in 1905 to SI,600 and resigned at that salary. I served six 
years at SI,600. I offended the Auditor for the War Department, 
Mr. Harper, by handing my resignation direct to Mr. MacVeagh. 
After I had been on leave for six weeks, when he, Mr. MacVeagh, 
came in on March 6, I handed my resignation for the purpose of 
asking that I be reinstated at my old pay, if I desired to return to 
the service in twelve months, because I was taking a philanthropic 
stand for the clerks by publishing this magazine in their interest. 

Mr. Dies. Oh, you had been publishing a magazine? 

Mr. Buck. I did, for six months. I dropped $3,500, and had to 
go back. 

I want to show you, before 12 o’clock, that I saved in the 10 years 
and 2 months service more than three times as much money as I 
received in salary during that time, in disallowances that I made in 
the examination of quartermasters’ accounts. These are facts. Mr. 
Dies wants facts. These are facts I am giving the committee. I 
will show you how it bears on the case. 


















54 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


I served there 10 years and 2 months, working assiduously, as many 
men work there for $1,600, $1,400, and $1,800, auditing quarter¬ 
masters’ claims, which are very complicated. There is no man in 
this room, I do not care how intellectual he may be, that can qualify 
himself within two years for that work. I tried to stay with Sam 
Brown as chief, but found he was incompetent and then I resigned 
when I could not get a transfer. 

Mr. Dies. Was not that in civil service? 

Mr. Buck. That was in civil service. That man was not competent 
then. I was an applicant for chief of the division. He is not com¬ 
petent now. He has never saved a dollar to the Government. The 
principal business he does is to smoke great big fat cigars, and no 
man in the division will state that he is competent. 

Mr. Dies. Did not you bring this before the Civil Service Com¬ 
mission ? 

Mr. Buck. No, sir. I went to Chief Clerk Lyman. 

Mr. Dies. But if this promotion was made because of political influ¬ 
ence, and you could show that before the Civil Service Commission, 
could you not rectify it ? 

Mr. Buck. The Civil Service Commission would not consider any 
statement I might make, except through the Treasury Department 
officials. 

Mr. Finley. Why ? 

Mr. Buck. I talked to Mr. John T. Doyle, who is a personal friend 
of mine, and he said I had better not raise it. 

Mr. Talcott. Who is Mr. John T. Doyle ? 

Mr. Buck. Secretary of the Civil Service Commission. 

I just want to go into the statement made by my friend Mr. Gordon. 
There is nobody renders more respect to superiors than I do. I am a 
military man, a veteran of the Indian war of 1876 and 1879. That 
was an absolute lie that I said Congress should be horsewhipped. 
I repeated what a gentleman told me on F Street the day before. 

Mr. Dies. What did he tell you ? I can not keep up with the situa¬ 
tion. 

Mr. Buck. The reporters in the papers said I said it myself, that 
Congress should be norsewhipped for neglecting the clerks. I just 
refer to this because Mr. Gordon has seen fit to say that the vice 
presidents resigned because of it—Mr. Ailes, representing Higgs 
Bank, Mr. Edson, representing the Washington Loan & Trust Co., 
and Mr. Bell. Mr. Bell and Mr. Edson both are personal friends of 
mine, and I have conferred with them since they resigned, and they 
are heartily in favor of the association. 

Mr. Dies. You said you were quoting some one else when you said 
the Congress ought to be horsewhipped. 

Mr. Buck. Well, it was a prominent gentleman. I told Mr. Edson 
who the gentleman was. But now I have got the onus on me, but 
I am willing to take it; I don’t believe in shoving it off. 

Mr. Dies. I was going to say the newspapers must have done you 
a great injustice. 

Mr. Buck. They certainly did. 

Mr. Dies. You did not give your authority when you made the 
statement ? 

Mr. Buck. They did not ask whether I said it of my own free will 
and accord. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


55 


X want to make this point: These vice presidents and Mr. Gordon 
did not resign until three days after this statement appeared in the 
papers that it was alleged I made, but they did resign immediately 
after Mr. Gordon made the speech in the Civil Service Retirement 
Association the next day, where he said there was a possibility of 
strikes. 

Mr. Dies. I saw something about that in the paper. I wish you 
would give me, if you can, the history of it. What did he say about 
strikes ? 

Mr. Buck. Mr. Gordon made the statement he believed in em¬ 
ployees organizing and there might be a possibility of strikes in the 
future. The papers exaggerated that the next morning by saying 
he advised strikes. The newspapers of Washington are, in my 
opinion—of course, this is not germane, probably—they are run by 
a lot of country men. 

Mr. Dies. Farmers or blacksmiths ? [Laughter.] 

Mr. Buck. Farmers, I think. [Laughter.] I think the record I 
have over here in Congress Hall, showing 418 business men coming to- 
this city, and their having been sidetracked by the Chamber of Com¬ 
merce, some of the members of this committee of 21, and certain 
newspapers, is a sad thing—that these men were kept away from 
Washington. It would have been the biggest thing, from a commer¬ 
cial standpoint, had they been allowed to come here. 

Gentlemen, I thank you very much. 

Dr. Jordan. May I add a word, before you disperse ? 

I want to call your attention to the fact that it might be wise to 
have a special committee of the main committee take up for consid¬ 
eration the reasonableness of these retirement plans, so that we might 
know what disposition is to be made of that phase of the matter. 

The Chairman. We will consider that. 

Mr. Gompers. May I ask what disposition has been made by the 
committee of the hearing on the XJoyd bill ? 

The Chairman. The committee has adjourned on that bill, subject 
to the call of the chairman. 

Mr. Gompers. Of course I would not care to prolong the hearing 
unnecessarily, but I should like to have the privilege of the attention 
of the committee for a brief time, at the convenience of the committee. 

The Chairman. You will have notice of the time. 

By limitation the committee will now adjourn. 

(Thereupon, at 12 o'clock, noon, the committee adjourned.) 


Appendix. 

THE AXJSTIH BILL. 

[H. R. 729, Sixty-second Congress, first session.] 

A BILL For increasing the salaries and for the retirement of employees in the classified civil service. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled , That beginning with the first day of July next following the 
passage of this act the annual salary, pay, or compensation of every officer or employee 
of the United States to whom this act applies shall be increased to an amount, com¬ 
puted to the nearest multiple of twelve dollars, that will be equal to one hundred 
and fifteen per centum of the present grade of salary, pay, or compensation of such 
officer or employee, and from such salary, pay, or compensation there shall be deducted 
and withheld monthly an amount, computed to the nearest tenth of a dollar, that 
will be sufficient, with interest thereon at five per centum per annum, compounded 



56 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


annually, to purchase from the United States, under the provisions of this act, an 
annuity, payable quarterly throughout life, for every such employee on arrival at 
the age of retirement as hereinafter provided, equal to one and one-half per centum 
of his annual salary, pay, or compensation for every full year of service or major frac¬ 
tion thereof between the date of the passage of this act and the arrival of the employee 
at the age of retirement. The deductions hereby provided for shall be based on such 
annuity table as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct, and interest at the rate 
of five per centum per annum, compounded annually, and shall be varied to corre¬ 
spond to any change in the salary of the employee. 

Sec. 2. That the amounts so deducted and withheld from the salary, pay, or com¬ 
pensation of each employee shall be deposited in the Treasury of the Lnited States 
and shall be credited, together with interest at five per centum per annum, com¬ 
pounded annually, to an individual account of the employee from whose salary, pay, 
or compensation the deduction is made. The moneys so deducted and the income 
derived therefrom may, from time to time, be deposited in savings banks designated 
by the Secretary of the Treasury for that purpose: Provided , however, That the savings 
banks receiving such deposits shall pay interest thereon at a rate of not less than three 
and one-half per centum per annum, compounded annually. For the safe-keeping 
and prompt payment of the money deposited with them the Secretary of the Treasury 
shall require the savings banks to give satisfactory security by the deposit of bonds 
of the United States, bonds or other interest-bearing obligations of any State of the 
United States, or any legally authorized bonds issued for municipal purposes by any 
city or town in the United States which has been in existence as a city or town for a 
period of twenty-five years, and which for a period of ten years previous to such deposit 
has not defaulted in the payment of any part of either principal or interest of any 
funded debt authorized to be contracted for by it, and which has at such date more 
than twenty-five thousand inhabitants, as established by the last national census, and 
whose net indebtedness does not exceed five per centum of the valuation of the taxable 
property therein, to be ascertained by the last preceding valuation of property for the 
assessment of taxes; or any legally authorized bonds issued for municipal purposes by 
any city or town in the United States which has been in existence as a city or town for a 
period of twenty-five years, and which for a period of ten years previous to such deposit 
has not defaulted in the payment of any part of either principal or interest of any 
funded debt authorized to be contracted by it, and which has at such date more than 
two hundred thousand inhabitants, as established by the last national census, and 
whose net indebtedness does not exceed seven per centum of the valuation of the 
taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last preceding valuation of property 
for the assessment of taxes. In this clause the words “net indebtedness” mean the 
indebtedness of any city or town, omitting debts created for supplying the inhabitants 
with water, and debts created in anticipation of taxes to be paid within one year, 
and deducting the amount of sinking funds available for the payment of the indebted¬ 
ness included. The Secretary of the Treasury shall accept, for the purpose of this act, 
securities herein enumerated in such proportions as he may from time to time deter¬ 
mine, and he may at any time require the deposit of additional securities, or require 
any bank to change the character of the securities already on deposit. It shall be the 
duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to obtain information with reference to the value 
and character of the securities authorized to be accepted under the provisions of this 
section, and he shall from time to time furnish information to savings banks as to such 
bonds as would be accepted as security. When consistent with the best interests of 
the fund created by this act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall distribute the deposits 
herein provided for, as far as practicable, equitably among the different States and 
sections. 

If for any reason the Secretary of the Treasury shall not be able to make satisfactory 
arrangements with savings banks for all of the funds, then he may invest the balance 
in any of the aforementioned securities. 

The moneys deducted from salaries and the income derived therefrom shall be held 
and deposited or invested, as above described, by thp Secretary of the Treasury until 
paid out as hereinafter provided. Any deficiency in the fund hereby created to carry 
out the provisions of this act shall be paid out of any money in the Treasury not other¬ 
wise appropriated. 

For the purpose of aiding the Secretary of the Treasury in depositing and investing 
the funds created by this act, a board of investment is hereby created, composed of 
the Treasurer of the United States, the Comptroller of the Currency, the chief of the 
office created by the provisions of this act, and two persons to be designated by the 
President from among the employees of the classified civil service. The members of 
the board of investment shall be sworn and shall hold office until others are appointed 
and qualified in their stead. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


57 


Sec. 3. That the retirement age herein referred to shall be sixty-five years for 
group one, sixty-five years for group two, and seventy years for group three. And 
the President of the United States shall designate the branches of the service to be 
included in each group. 

Sec. 4. That if within thirty days before the arrival of an employee at the age of 
retirement the head of the department or independent office in which he is employed 
certifies to the Secretary of the Treasury that by reason of his efficiency and his willing¬ 
ness to remain in the service the continuance of such employee therein would be 
advantageous to the public service, such employee may be retained for a term not 
exceeding two years, and at the end of two years he may by similar certification be 
continued for an additional term of two years, and so on: Provided, however, That after 
the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty, no person to whom this act applies 
shall be continued in the service beyond the age of retirement as herein provided. 
Upon the failure of the head of the department or independent office to make the 
above-described certificate it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to 
place such employee upon the retired list in accordance with the provisions of this act. 

Sec. 5. That if an employee is retained in the service after reaching the retirement 
age a deduction of ten per centum of his monthly salarv, pay, or compensation shall 
thereafter be made while he remains in the service, and the same shall be treated as 
other deductions under section two of this act. 

Sec. 6. That upon retiring at the age of retirement, or thereafter, the employee may 
withdraw his savings, with the increment of interest as herein provided, under one 
of the following options, and if Option I or Option II is selected, receive in addition 
thereto such annuity, if any, as may be apportioned by the Secretary of the Treasury 
out of accumulations in excess of five per centum guaranteed by the provisions of this 
act, and such apportionment by the Secretary of the Treasury shall be conclusive: 

Option I. In an annuity payable quarterly throughout life. 

Option II. In an annuity payable quarterly throughout life, with the provision 
that in case of the death of the annuitant before he has received in annuities the 
amount of his savings, plus the interest credited thereon, the balance shall be paid to 
his legal heirs. In determining at his death the amount due to his heirs no account 
shall be taken of the annuities paid to him by the United States under section eleven 
of this act. 

Option III. In one sum. 

If after retirement the employee does not avail himself of one of the foregoing 
options, but leaves the amount due him on deposit, interest at the rate of two per 
centum per annum on the original sum so left on deposit on retirement shall be credited 
thereto for a period not exceeding twenty years, and if not then withdrawn, the money 
so left on deposit, without interest, shall be covered into the Treasury as a miscel¬ 
laneous receipt. 

Sec. 7. That upon absolute separation from the civil service prior to the retirement 
age, and only upon such separation, the employee may withdraw his savings in one 
sum, and in case he has been in such service not less than six years, he may also 
receive in addition thereto interest on his savings at the rate of five per centum per 
annum, compounded annually, or, in case his savings amount to at least one thousand 
dollars, he may withdraw the same under any one of the foregoing options, computed 
on the basis of his attained age. In case of the death of an employee while in the 
service the amount of his savings, together with the interest credited thereon, shall 
be paid to his legal heirs. 

Sec. 8. That beginning with the first day of July next following the passage of 
this act there shall be deducted and withheld from the monthly salary, pay, or com¬ 
pensation of every employee newly entering the sendee to whom this act applies 
an amount equal to one-fifth of his monthly salary, pay, or compensation during the 
first six months of his employment; and in every case of promotion of any person 
to whom this act applies there shall be deducted and withheld from the monthly 
salary, pay, or compensation of such person an amount equal to the increase made by 
such promotion during the first three months from the taking effect thereof; and the 
amounts so deducted and withheld shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United 
States to the credit of a special fund to carry out the provisions of section nine of 
this act. 

Sec. 9. That beginning one year after the first day of July next following the pas¬ 
sage of this act, an employee to whom this act applies, who, by reason of accident or 
illness not due to vicious habits or by reason of exigencies of the service, but without 
fault or delinquency on his part, has become totally and permanently disabled, may 
retire from active service prior to the age of retirement, and, on certificate from the 
head of the department or independent office in which he is employed to the Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury, setting forth such disability, and the approval of such certificate 


58 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


by the Secretary of the Treasury, may receive, out of the fund created by section 
eight, of this act, an annual disability allowance, payable quarterly, equal to one and 
one-half per centum of his total compensation during service prior to such retirement: 
Provided , hovjever, That, unless prorated by the Secretary of the Treasury as herein¬ 
after provided, the allowance for disability, due to accident, shall be equal to not less 
than twenty per centum of the average annual compensation of the disabled employee 
prior to such retirement: And provided farther , That the allowance for disability due 
to illness shall only be granted after twenty years of service. Allowances under this 
section shall be discontinued on arrival of the employee at the age of retirement unless 
sooner terminated by the Secretary of the Treasury. 

If upon the retirement of an employee on a disability allowance the money then 
to his credit, under section two of this act, together with interest thereon at five per 
centum per annum, compounded annually, will not be sufficient to purchase an annu¬ 
ity, payable quarterly throughout life, for such employee on arrival at the age of retire¬ 
ment, equal to his annual disability allowance, the Secretary of the Treasury shall de¬ 
duct and withhold from his quarterly disability allowance an amount, computed to the 
nearest tenth of a dollar, that, together with the money then to his credit, with interest, 
will be sufficient to purchase such annuity. Amounts deducted and withheld from 
disability allowances shall be treated as deductions under section two of this act. 
If the money to his credit, as aforesaid, is in excess of the amount that will be required 
to purchase such annuity, he may withdraw such excess in one cash sum, or in an 
annuity limited to the age of retirement. 

The Secretary of the Treasury shall reduce or terminate the disability allowance 
granted to any employee whenever in his judgment it is proper to do so, and such 
action on his part shall be final and conclusive. 

In ease of the death of an employee while in the receipt of a disability allowance, 
the amount to his credit under section two of this act shall be paid to his legal heirs, 
and the disability allowance shall cease and determine. 

The disability allowances hereby provided for shall at all times be limited to the 
fund created by section eight of this act, and if any valuation of the fund shows the 
liabilities for allowances to be in excess of the resources of such fund, then the allow¬ 
ances shall be reduced pro rata to a sum within the fund. 

Sec. 10. That in case of reinstatement in the classified civil service of any person 
who at the time of his separation therefrom received a refund under section seven of 
this act, his period of service for the purpose of retirement and of making the monthly 
deduction from his salary shall be computed from the date of such reinstatement, 
unless he shall, within ninety days after reinstatement, pay to the Secretary of the 
Treasury the amount refunded to him, with interest at five per centum per annum, 
in which case the same shall be replaced to the credit of his account, and the former 
period of service shall be counted. 

Sec. 11. That beginning with the first day of July next following the passage of 
this act every employee to whom this act applies shall be entitled, on reaching the 
retirement age, or having already passed that age, to retire from the service under 
the provisions hereinbefore contained, and also, in addition to the annuity herein 
provided for by his own contributions from his salary, to receive from the United 
States during the remainder of his life an annuity equafto one and one-half per centum 
of his total compensation during service prior to the taking effect of this act; and the 
Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to pay such annuity 
quarterly, upon proper certification of the retirement of such employee by the appoint¬ 
ing officer under whom he last served. Annuities from the United States for the 
period of service prior to the passage of this act shall be payable only on condition 
that the employee remains in the service until he reaches the age of retirement: 
Provided , however , That employees of group, one may receive the annuity granted 
by this section on retirement at the age of sixty years or thereafter. On the death 
of the employee the payment of annuities provided for by this section shall cease 
and determine. x\nnuities payable by the United States on salaries in excess of 
two thousand five hundred dollars per'annum shall be based upon an annual salarv 
of two thousand five hundred dollars. 

Sec. 12. That the period of service upon which the annuity to be paid by the United 
States is based shall be computed from the original employment, whether as a classi¬ 
fied or unclassified employee, and shall include periods of service at different times 
and service in one or more departments, branches, or independent offices of the Gov¬ 
ernment, the Signal Corps prior to July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and 
the general service in or under the War Department prior to May sixth, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and ninety-six. 

Sec. 13. That every person to whom this act applies, who shall continue in the 
classified civil service after the passage of this act, as well as every person to whom 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


59 


this act applies, who may hereafter be appointed to a position or place, shall be 
deemed to consent and agree to the deductions made and provided for herein, and shall 
receipt in full for the salary, pay, or compensation which may be paid monthly or at 
any other time, and such payment shall be a full and complete discharge and acquit¬ 
tance of all claims or demands whatsoever for services rendered by such person during 
the period covered by such payment, notwithstanding the provisions of sections one 
hundred and six-seven, one hundred and sixty-eight, and one hundred and sixty-nine 
of the Revised Statutes of the United States, or of any other law, rule, or regulation 
affecting the salary, pay, or compensation of any person or persons employed in the 
classified civil service to whom this act applies. 

Sec. 14. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall prepare and keep all needful 
tables, records, and accounts required for carrying out the provisions of this act. The 
records to be kept shall include data showing the mortality experience of the em¬ 
ployees in the various branches of the service and the rate of withdrawal from the 
classified service and any other information that may be of value and may serve as a 
guide for future valuations and adjustments of the plan for the retirement of em¬ 
ployees. The Secretary of the Treasury shall make a detailed comparative report 
annually to Congress showing all receipts and disbursements under the provisions of 
this act, together with the total number of persons receiving annuities and disability 
allowances and the amounts paid them. 

Sec. 15. That, the provisions of this act shall apply to all persons entering the 
classified civil service after the first day of July next following the passage of this act, 
and to all persons in the classified civil service prior to the taking effect of this act who 
shall, by written application to the Secretary of the Treasury within one year after 
the first day of July next following the passage of this act, elect to become subject to 
the provisions of this act. The classified civil service is hereby defined to include 
all officers and employees in the executive civil service of the United States except 
unskilled laborers and persons appointed by the President and confirmed by the 
Senate. 

No person serving in a position excepted from examination or registration as defined 
in the civil-service rules shall be included within the provisions of this act unless he 
has served in a competitive position for at least one year. Whenever any person 
becomes separated from the classified civil service by reason of appointment in the 
unclassified service, such separation shall not operate to take him out of the provisions 
of this act. The President shall have power, in his discretion, to exclude from the oper¬ 
ation of this act any group of employees whose tenure of office is intermittent or of 
uncertain duration. 

Sec. 16. That none of the moneys mentioned in this act shall be assignable either 
in law or equity or be subject to execution or levy by attachment, garnishment, or 
other legal process. 

Sec. 17. That for the clerical and other service and all other expenses necessary in 
carrying out the provisions of this act during the fiscal years nineteen hundred and 
eleven and nineteen hundred and twelve, including salaries and rent in the city of 
Washingtom, there is hereby appropriated the sum of fifty thousand dollars, out of 
any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be available until expended. 

Sec. 18. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to perform or cause 
to be performed any and all acts and to make such rules and regulations as.may be 
necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying the provisions of this act into full 
force and effect. 


THE GILLETT RETIREMENT BILL. 

[H. R. 750. Sixty-second Congress, first session.] 

A BILL For the retirement of employees in the classified civil service. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled , That beginning with the first day of July next following the 
passage of this act there shall be deducted and withheld from the monthly salary, pay, 
or compensation of every officer or employee of the United States to whom this act 
applies an amount, computed to the nearest tenth of a dollar, that will be sufficient, 
with interest thereon at four per centum per annum, compounded annually, to pur¬ 
chase from the United States, under the provisions of this act, an annuity, payable 
quarterly throughout life, for every such employee on arrival at the age of retiremen 
as hereinafter provided, equal to one and one-half per centum of his annual salary, pay, 
or compensation for every full year of service or major fraction thereof between the date 



60 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


of the passage of this act and the arrival of the employee at the age of retirement. The 
deductions hereby provided for shall be based on such annuity table as the Secretary 
of the Treasury may direct, and bear interest at the rate of four per centum per annum, 
compounded annually, and shall be varied to correspond to any change in the salary 
of the employee. 

Sec. 2. That the amounts so deducted and withheld from the salary, pay, or com¬ 
pensation of each employee shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States 
and shall be credited, together with interest at four per centum per annum, com¬ 
pounded annually, to an individual account of the employee from whose salary, pay, 
or compensation the deduction is made. The moneys so deducted and the income 
derived therefrom may from time to time be deposited in savings banks designated 
by the Secretary of the Treasury for that purpose: Provided, however, That the sav¬ 
ings banks receiving such deposits shall pay interest thereon at a rate of not less than 
four per centum per annum, compounded annually. For the safe-keeping and prompt 
payment of the money deposited with them the Secretary of the Treasury shall require 
the savings banks to give satisfactory security, by the deposit of bonds of the United 
States, bonds or other interest-bearing obligations of any State of the United States, 
or any legally authorized bonds issued for municipal purposes by any city or town 
in the United States which has been in existence as a city or town for a period of 
twenty-five years, and which for a period of ten years previous to such deposit has 
not defaulted in the payment of any part of either principal or interest of any funded 
debt authorized to be contracted by it, and which has at such date more than twenty- 
five thousand inhabitants, as established by the last national census, and whose net 
indebtedness does not exceed five per centum of the valuation of the taxable prop¬ 
erty therein, to be ascertained by the last preceding valuation of property for the 
assessment of taxes; or any legally authorized bonds issued for municipal purposes 
by any city or town in the United States which has been in existence as a city or 
town for a period of twenty-five vears, and which for a period of ten years previous 
to such deposit has not defaulted in the payment of any part of either principal or 
interest of any funded debt authorized to be contracted by it, and which has at such 
date more than two hundred thousand inhabitants, as established by the last national 
census, and whose net indebtedness does not exceed seven per centum of the val¬ 
uation of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last preceding valu¬ 
ation of property for the assessment of taxes. In this clause the words “net indebt¬ 
edness” mean the indebtedness of any city or town, omitting debts created for 
supplying the inhabitants with water, and debts created in anticipation of taxes to 
be paid within one year, and deducting the amount of sinking funds available for 
the payment of the indebtedness included. The Secretary of the Treasury shall 
accept, for the purpose of this act, securities herein enumerated in such proportions 
as he may from time to time determine, and he may at any time require the deposit 
of additional securities, or require any bank to change the‘character of the securities 
already on deposit. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to obtain 
information with reference to the value and character of the securities authorized to 
be accepted under the provisions of this section, and he shall from time to time fur¬ 
nish information to savings banks as to such bonds as would be accepted as security. 
When consistent with the best interests of the fund created bv this act, the Secretary 
of the Treasury shall distribute the deposits herein provided for, as far as practicable, 
equitably between the different States and sections. 

If, for any reason, the Secretary of the Treasury shall not be able to make satisfactory 
arrangements with savings banks for all of the funds, then he may invest the balance 
in any of the aforementioned securities. 

The moneys deducted from salaries and the income derived therefrom shall be 
held and deposited or invested, as above described, by the Secretary of the Treasury 
until paid out as hereinafter provided. Any deficiency in the fund hereby created 
to carry out the provisions of this act shall be paid out of any money in the Treasury 
not otherwise appropriated. 

For the purpose of aiding the Secretary of the Treasury in depositing and investing 
the funds created by this act a board of investment is hereby created, composed of the 
Treasurer of the United States, the Comptroller of the Currency, the chief of the 
office created by the provisions of this act, and two persons to be designated by the 
President from among the employees of the classified civil service. The members 
of the board of investment shall be sworn, and shall hold office until others are ap¬ 
pointed and qualified in their stead. 

Sec. 3. That the retirement age herein referred to shall be sixty-five years for 
group one, sixty-five years for group two, and seventy years for group three. And the 
President of the United States shall designate the branches of the service to be included 
in each group. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


61 


Sec. 4. That if within thirty days before the arrival of an employee at the age of 
retirement the head of the department or independent office in which he is employed 
certifies to the Secretary of the Treasury that by reason of his efficiency and his willing¬ 
ness to remain in the service the continuance of such employee therein would be 
advantageous to the public service, such employee may be retained for a term not 
exceeding two years; and at the end of the two years he may by similar certification 
be continued for an additional term of two years, and so on: Provided , however , That 
after the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty, no person to whom this act 
applies shall be continued in the service beyond the age of retirement as herein 
provided. Upon the failure of the head of the department or independent office to 
make the above-described certificate it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the 
Treasury to place such employee upon the retired list in accordance with the pro¬ 
visions of this act. 

Sec. 5. That if an employee is retained in the service after reaching the retirement 
age a deduction of ten per centum of his monthly salary, pay, or compensation shall 
thereafter be made while he remains in the service, and the same shall be treated as 
other deductions under section two of this act. 

Sec. 6. That upon retiring at the age of retirement, or thereafter, the employee may 
withdraw his savings, with the increment of interest as herein provided, under one 
of the following options, and if Option I or Option II is selected, receive in addition 
thereto such annuity, if any, as may be apportioned by the Secretary of the Treasury 
out of accumulations in excess of four per centum guaranteed by the provisions of 
this act, and such apportionment by the Secretary of the Treasury shall be conclusive: 

Option I. In an annuity payable quarterly throughout life. 

Option II. In an annuity payable quarterly throughout life, with the provision that 
in case of the death of the annuitant before he has received in annuities the amount 
of his savings, plus the interest credited thereon, the balance shall be paid to his legal 
heirs. In determining at his death the amount due to his heirs no account shall be 
taken of the annuities paid to him by the United States under section nine of this act. 

Option III. In one sum. 

If after retirement the employee does not avail himself of one of the foregoing options, 
but leaves the amount due him on deposit, interest at the rate of two per centum per 
annum on the original sum so left on deposit on retirement shall be credited thereto 
for a period not exceeding twenty years, and if not then withdrawn the money so left 
on deposit, without interest, shall be covered into the Treasury as a miscellaneous 
receipt. 

Sec. 7. That upon absolute separation from the civil service prior to the retirement 
age, and only upon such separation, the employee may withdraw his savings in one 
sum, and in case he has been in such service not less than six years he may also receive 
in addition thereto interest on his savings at the rate of four per centum per annum, 
compounded annually; or, in case his savings amount to at least one thousand dollars, 
he may withdraw the same under any one of the foregoing options computed on the 
basis of his attained age. In case of the death of an employee while in the service the 
amount of his savings, together with the interest credited thereon, shall be paid to 
his legal heirs. 

Sec. 8. That in case of reinstatement in the classified civil service of any person 
who at the time of his separation therefrom received a refund under section seven 
of this act, his period of service for the purpose of retirement and of making the 
monthly deductions from hi3 salary shall be computed from the date of such rein¬ 
statement, unless he shall, within ninety days after reinstatement, pay to the Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury the amount refunded to him, with interest at four per centum 
per annum, in which case the same shall be replaced to the credit of his account, 
and the former period of service shall be counted. 

Sec. 9. That beginning with the first day of July next following the passage of this 
act every employee to whom this act applies shall be entitled, on reaching the retire¬ 
ment age, or having already passed that age, to retire from the service under the pro¬ 
visions hereinbefore contained, and also, in addition to the annuity herein provided 
for by his own contributions from his salary, to receive from the United States during 
the remainder of his life an annuity equal to one and one-half per centum of his total 
compensation during service prior to the taking effect of this act: Provided , however, 
That no annuity shall be paid by the United States for services prior to the passage of 
this act, which, together with the annuity earned by the employee’s own contribu¬ 
tion, shall amount to more than six hundred dollars; and the Secretary of the Treasury 
is hereby authorized and directed to pay such annuity quarterly, upon proper cer¬ 
tification of the retirement of such employee by the appointing officer under whom he 
last served. Annuities from the United States for the period of service prior to the 
passage of this act shall be payable only on condition that the employee remains in 
the service until he reaches the age of retirement: Provided , however, That employees 


62 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


of group one may receive the annuity granted by this section on retirement at the 
age of sixty years or thereafter. On the death of the employee the payment of 
annuities provided for by this section shall cease and determine. Annuities payable 
by the United States on salaries in excess of two thousand five hundred dollars per 
annum shall be based upon an annual salary of two thousand five hundred dollars. 

Sec. 10. That the period of service upon which the annuity to be paid by the 
United States is based shall be computed from original employment, whether as a 
classified or unclassified employee, and shall include periods of service at different 
times and service in one or more departments, branches, or independent offices of 
the Government, the Signal Corps prior to July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, 
and the general service in or under the War Department prior to May sixth, eighteen 
hundred and ninety-six. 

Sec. 11. That every person to whom this act applies who shall continue in the 
classified civil service after the passage of this act, as well as every person to whom 
this act applies who may hereafter be appointed to a position or place, shall be deemed 
to consent and agree to the deductions made and provided for herein, and shall receipt 
in full for the salary, pay, or compensation which may be paid monthly or at any other 
time, and such payment shall be a full and complete discharge and acquittance of all 
claims or demands whatsoever for services rendered by such person during the period 
covered by such payment, notwithstanding the provisions of sections one hundred 
and sixty-seven, one hundred and sixty-eight, and one hundred and sixty-nine of 
the Revised Statutes of the United States, or of any other law, rule, or regulation 
affecting the salary, pay, or compensation cf any person or persons employed in the 
classified civil service to whom this act applies. 

Sec. 12. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall prepare and keep all needful 
tables, records, and accounts required for carrying out the provisions of this act. The 
records to be kept shall include data showing the mortality experience of the employees 
in the various branches of the service and the rate of withdrawal from the classified 
service, and any other information that may be of value and may serve as a guide for 
future valuations and adjustments of the plan for the retirement of employees. The 
Secretary of the Treasury shall make a detailed comparative report annually to Con¬ 
gress showing all receipts and disbursements under the provisions of this act, together 
with the total number of persons receiving annuities and disability allowances and 
the amounts paid them. 

Sec. 13. That no person serving in a position excepted from examination or regis¬ 
tration as defined jn the civil-service rules shall be included within the provisions of 
this act unless he lias served in a competitive position for at least one year. Whenever 
any person becomes separated from the classified service by reason of appointment in 
the unclassified service, such separation shall not operate to take him out of the pro¬ 
visions of this act. The President shall have power, in his discretion, to exclude from 
the operation of this act any group of employees whose tenure of office is intermittent 
or of uncertain duration. 

Sec. 14. That none of the moneys mentioned in this act shall be assignable either 
in law or equity or be subject to execution or levy by attachment, garnishment, 
or other legal process. 

Sec. 15. That for the clerical and other service and all other expenses necessary in 
carrying out the provisions of this act during the fiscal year nineteen hundred and 
twelve, including salaries and rent in the city of Washington, there is hereby appro¬ 
priated the sum of forty thousand dollars opt of any money in the Treasury not other¬ 
wise appropriated, to be available until expended. 

Sec. 16. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to perform or 
cause to be performed any and all acts and to make such rules and regulations as 
may be necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying the provisions of this act 
into full force and effect. 


TEE GILLETT RECLASSIFICATION BILL. 

[H. It. 1298, Sixty-second Congress, first session.] 

A BILL To amend section one hundred and sixty-seven of the Revised Statutes of the United States. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That the following schedule of grades and salaries for employees 
in the executive departments and establishments is hereby adopted, and hereafter 
estimates for salaries of the employees in the several grades described in said schedule 
shall be made in accordance with the rates named therein. 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


63 


Schedule. 

SUPERVISORY GRADES. 

Chief clerks and chiefs of division and other employees who perform supervisory, 
executive, and administrative duties to be specifically estimated for. Salaries: Four 
thousand two hundred dollars to two thousand one hundred dollars. 

CLERICAL GRADES. 

I. Senior clerks. —Employees who are assigned to work largely supervisory, or 
requiring the highest order of clerical ability, involving much original thought, con¬ 
sideration, and investigation. Salaries: Two thousand one hundred dollars, one thou¬ 
sand nine hundred and eighty dollars, one thousand eight hundred and sixty dollars. 

II. Clerks. —Employees who are assigned to work more or les3 routine, involving 
responsibility, special ability and original thought, consideration, and investigation. 
Salaries: One thousand seven hundred and forty dollars, one thousand six hundred 
and twenty dollars, one thousand five hundred dollars. 

III. Junior clerks. —Employees who are assigned to work of a routine character, 
requiring but little original thought or consideration, but requiring judgment, responsi¬ 
bility, and special skill. Salaries: One thousand three hundred and eighty dollars, 
one thousand three hundred and twenty dollars, one thousand two hundred and sixty 
dollars, one thousand two hundred dollars. 

IY. Under clerks. —Employees who are assigned to work of a simple or routine 
character, requiring care, accuracy, and skill. Salaries: One thousand and eighty 
dollars, one thousand and twenty dollars, nine hundred and sixty dollars, nine hundred 
dollars. 

subclerical grades. 

I. Employees whose duties are not clerical or mechanical, but require some special 
skill, or involve personal responsibility, as messengers, watchmen, skilled laborers. 
Salaries: Eight hundred and forty dollars, seven hundred and eighty dollars, seven 
hundred and twenty dollars, six hundred and sixty dollars. 

II. Employees engaged in rough and unskilled work, as laborers generally. Salaries: 
Six hundred and sixty dollars, six hundred dollars. 

III. Employees who enter the service at an early age and are engaged in light work, 
as messenger boys. Salaries: Four hundred and eighty dollars, four, hundred and 
twenty dollars, three hundred and sixty dollars, three hundred dollars. 

IV. Employees whose work occupies only part of the time each day, as charwomen 
and janitors. Salaries: Three hundred and sixty dollars, three hundred dollars, two 
hundred and forty dollars. 

PROFESSIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND TECHNICAL TRADES AND MISCELLANEOUS EMPLOYEES. 

The number and variety of designations of such employees shall be as small as 
practicable, and the duties assigned to them shall be confined, as far as possible, 
within the lines indicated by their titles or for which they may have passed examina¬ 
tions. Their salaries shall be fixed at the rates stated in this schedule, which are 
appropriate to the value of their services. 

Sec. 2. That hereafter when appropriation acts, in providing for clerks in the 
several bureaus, offices, and divisions, shall state the number of senior clerks, clerks, 
junior clerks, and under clerks to be allowed to each, without specifying the several 
rates of salaries, the proper appointing officers shall, the first time appropriation is 
made in this manner, distribute the clerks of each bureau, office, or division, at the 
rates of salaries prescribed in said schedule, in such numbers and proportion as not 
to exceed the total amount allowed for salaries for the fiscal year to said bureau, 
office, or division; and thereafter when employees of the clerical grades are provided 
for without specification of salaries, the amount of salaries to be allowed to the several 
bureaus, offices, or divisions shall be determined by the aggregate amount of annual 
salaries of the employees thereof at the rates of said salaries on the first day of October, 
modified by such additions or reductions of force as may be provided for; but on the 
first day of January and the first day of July of every year those clerks who have shown 
a satisfactory degree of efficiency in their work shall be advanced to the next higher 
rates of salary within their several grades above those which they have been receiving 
for one year or more; and the additional amounts necessary to cover the cost of said 
semiannual advancements of clerks shall be appropriated in general terms: Provided , 
That, nothing herein shall prohibit the promotion or reduction of clerks or other em¬ 
ployees from one grade to another at any time when vacancies occur in the numbers 
provided for any grade. 

Sec. 3. That all laws and parts of laws inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. 


64 


RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


THE HAMILL BILL. 

[H. R. 9242, Sixty-second Congress, first session.] 

A BILL To provide for the retirement of employees in the civil service. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That beginning with the first day of July next following the 
passage of this act all employees in the classified civil service shall be eligible for retire¬ 
ment as hereinafter provided. 

Sec. 2. That any employee who has served the United States for thirty years or 
more and who shall have attained the age of sixty years or over shall receive fifty per 
centum of the average annual salary, pay, or compensation he may have received 
for the five years next preceding his retirement. Any employee who has served the 
United States for a period of from twenty-five to thirty years and who shall have 
attained the age of sixty-two years or over shall receive forty-five per centum of the 
average annual salary, pay, or compensation he may have received for the five years 
next preceding his retirement. Any employee who has served the United States for 
a period of from twenty to twenty-five years and who shall have attained the age of 
sixty-five years or over shall receive forty per centum of the average annual salary, 
pay, or compensation he may have received for the five years next preceding his 
retirement. 

Sec. 3. That no employee provided for in this act shall be retained in the service 
after arriving at the age of seventy years. 

Sec. 4. That the payments provided for in this act shall be paid quarterly throughout 
the life of the employee. 

Sec. 5. That any employee to whom this act applies who has served the United 
States for not less than five years and who, by reason of accident or illness not due to 
vicious habits and without fault or delinquency on his part, has become disabled, 
shall be retired from the service on certificate from the head of the department or 
independent office in which he is employed to the Secretary of the Treasury, setting 
forth such disabilities, and on the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury he shall 
receive thirty per centum of his average annual salary, pay, or compensation for the 
five years next preceding his retirement for from five to ten years of service; forty per 
centum for from ten to twenty years of service; fifty per centum for twenty-one years 
and over. 

Sec. 6. That for the purposes of this act the period of service shall be computed from 
original employment, whether as a classified or unclassified employee, and shall 
include periods of service at different times and service in one or more departments, 
branches, or independent offices of the Government, the Signal Corps prior to July 
first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and the general service in or under the War 
Department prior to May sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six. 

Sec. 7. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to 
pay, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sum sufficient 
to carry out the purposes of this act. 

Sec. 8. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to perform, or cause 
to be performed, any and all acts and to make such rules and regulations as may be 
necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying the provisions of this act into full 
force and effect. 


THE PETERS BILL. 

[H. R. 11661, Sixty-second Congress, first session.] 

A BILL To provide for the retirement of employees in the civil service. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That, beginning with the first of July next following the passage 
of this act, all employees in the classified civil service shall be eligible for retirement 
as hereinafter provided. 

Sec. 2. That any employee who has served the United States for at least thirty- 
five years, and who shall have attained the age of sixty years, shall receive six-twelfths 
of the average salary, pay, or compensation he may have received for the five years 
next preceding his retirement. Any employee who has served the United States 
for at least thirty years, and who shall have attained the age of sixty-two years, shall 
receive five-twelfths of the average salary, pay, or compensation he mav have received 
for the five years next preceding his retirement. Any employee who has served 



RECLASSIFICATION AND RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 


65 


the United States for at least twenty-five years, and who shall have attained the 
age of sixty-four years, shall receive four-twelfths of the average salary, pay, or com¬ 
pensation he may have received for the five years next preceding his retirement. 
Any employee who has served the United States for at least twenty years, and who 
shall have attained the age of sixty-six years, shall receive three-twelfths of the aver¬ 
age salary, pay, or compensation he may have received for the five years next pre¬ 
ceding his retirement. 

Sec. 3. That no employee provided for in this act shall be retained in the service 
after arriving at the age of seventy years. 

Sec. 4. That all payments provided for in this act shall be paid quarterly throughout 
the life of the employee. 

Sec. 5. That any employee to whom this act applies who has served the United 
States for not less than five years and who, by reason of accident or illness not due to 
vicious habits or intemperance, or who, by reason of exigencies of the service, has 
become disabled, shall be retired from the service on certificate from the head of the 
department or independent office in which he is employed to the Secretary of the 
Treasury setting forth such disabilities; and, on the approval of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, he shall receive an allowance equal to the annuity provided in section two 
of this act, irrespective of age. If he has served less than twenty years but at least 
five years, he shall receive two-twelfths of his average salary, pay, or compensation for 
the five years next preceding retirement. The arrival at the age of seventy years of 
an employee who has served less than twenty years shall be sufficient evidence of 
disability for retirement under this section. The Secretary of the Treasury shall 
terminate the disability allowance granted to any employee whenever, in his judgment, 
it is proper to do so: Provided , however , That the disabled employee may appeal to a 
commission of three, consisting of a commissioner of the district court of the United 
States where the disabled employee resides, a supervisory officer or other employee 
selected by the head of the department or independent office in which the disabled 
employee was last employed, and a competent citizen of good repute selected by dis¬ 
abled employee. 

Sec. 6. That for the purpose of this act the period of service shall be computed from 
original employment, whether as a classified or unclassified employee, and shall 
include periods of service at different times and service in one or more departments, 
branches, or independent offices of the Government, the Signal Corps prior to July 
first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and the general service in or under the War 
Department prior to May sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six. 

Sec. 7. That in times of stress any retired employee under the age of seventy, who 
is able and willing, may be employed as a substitute, auxiliary, or temporary em¬ 
ployee, and shall be paid accordingly out of the respective appropriations available 
For such service; but such employment shall not exceed thirty days’ work in any one 
quarter. Such employment shall not count toward an annuity or disability allow¬ 
ance. 

Sec. 8. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to 
pay, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sum sufficient 
to carry out the purposes of this act. 

Sec. 9. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to perform, or 
cause to be performed, any and all acts, and to make such rules and regulations as 
may be necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying the provisions of this act 
into full force and effect. 


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